I Think You're My Best Friend
by ProfessionalAshes0fRoses
Summary: Sebastian experiences a mild trauma that comes back to haunt him years later. Hunter tries to help his friend, but can he get through to him?
1. Chapter 1

**I Think You're My Best Friend**

 **A/N: Hello my dudes. This story is going to be Huntbastain friendship. (Sorry, but I see Hunter as straight. I mean not the douchey "nah man that's gay" straight, but straight nevertheless.) The first chapter is basically Sebastian's backstory so everyone understands his behavior in the next chapter. They're tiny babies here, Seb is 15. The age makes sense to me because I wanted him to be old enough to have his usual Sebastian assholeyness but I didn't want him to be old enough to drive. This chapter is kind of angsty but I swear there will be a happy ending okay I'm not a complete monster. (Also the title will make more sense later.)**

 **T/W: for mild abuse. Read at your own risk my friends.  
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Sebastian held a water bottle to his face pathetically, whining and flopping around on his bed like a distressed fish. Hunter was at lacrosse practice so Sebastian was free to mope around their dorm for a few hours without his roommate's wondering eyes. It was a good plan until he fell asleep with his face pressed up against said water bottle. That's how Hunter found him.

"Sebastian, why are you sleeping on a water bottle?"

Sebastian jumped at Hunter's voice, startled out of his light sleep. "Because it's comfortable?" he reasoned reasonably.

"Do you have a toothache?"

Sebastian filched at Hunter's question. "No. Where would you get that conclusion from?"

"Donno. Just makes sense that that would help. Are you sure you're not lying?"

"Yes."

"I think you're lying."

"Well I'm not."

"Now you're lying about lying."

"Shut up Hunter, I don't like you."

"Ah, see now you're telling the truth. Let's keep doing that."

Sebastian sighed. "Leave me alone, Hunter."

"Are you hiding your toothache because you're afraid? You probably just need a filling and those aren't bad. I had one last year and it didn't hurt. If you're in pain then it's really not worth it because fillings are really easy."

Now Sebastian put a pillow over his head dramatically so he couldn't hear Hunter. "I don't care, Hunter."

"You should get your tooth fixed."

"It doesn't need fixing."

"I should call your mom, I bet she'd make you."

That got a reaction out of Sebastian and he uncovered his head from the pillow. "I swear to god Hunter, don't you dare fucking tell her!"

"Ha! You just admitted it," Hunter said. "Your tooth hurts. You're an idiot. Just get it fixed, Sebastian."

Sebastian groaned, now realizing the hole he just plummeted himself into. "Hunter, please just drop it. I don't want to get it fixed."

"Sebastian, that doesn't make any sense. If your tooth hurts why wouldn't you want it fixed? Pain doesn't feel good, dude," Hunter lectured.

"Exactly the reason I don't want it fixed. I don't want it to hurt. What I'm feeling now isn't that bad anyway."

"That's stupid."

"You're stupid."

"I mean you're probably right but what's your point?" Hunter sat down on the bed next to Sebastian. "I don't understand what you mean when you say you don't want it to hurt, because if you didn't want it to hurt then you'd get it fixed."

"It doesn't make sense that someone drilling into my damn teeth would be painless, Hunter."

"It makes perfect sense. They give you medicine so you don't feel it. Have you really never had a filling before?"

"Not recently. I think I did when I was younger, but I remember crying a lot so I think it hurt. That's why I don't want to do it," Sebastian tried to explain, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt uncomfortably.

"You were probably just scared. Little kids cry a lot when they're at the dentist because they're scared or don't want to open their mouth, it's usually a stupid reason. Trust me, it will be fine. Just consider telling your mom so you can get it fixed, alright? Teeth don't heal so it's only going to get worse."

"I'll think about it," Sebastian mumbled. That wasn't a lie, he thought about it for a second before deciding he wasn't going to.

Hunter however grew impatient when Sebastian 'thought about it' for an entire month. He was clearly miserable, and he wouldn't stop complaining about how much his tooth hurt, and after a while Hunter got tired of his shit and called Sebastian's mom because he clearly wasn't going to do it on his own. He didn't feel bad about it because it was really for his own good. Soon after Sebastian's mom flew in and took it upon herself to handle the situation.

So that's where Sebastian found himself. "Mom, please don't. Hunter was lying, my tooth doesn't hurt. I promise it doesn't. Please don't make me do this," he begged.

"Sebastian, you're being ridiculous. If it doesn't hurt then you have nothing to worry about, right? You are doing this. It isn't up for debate," his mother said simply.

Sebastian was trembling as they walked in, and he felt like he was going to throw up.

"Hi, I'm here with my son Sebastian. There should be an appointment for him."

"Sebastian Smyth? Okay, you can follow me," a lady in black scrubs greeted as soon as his mother announced who he was. He heard his mother say something about how she was please with the lack of wait time, but Sebastian thought it was a little shady. Wouldn't a good establishment be sort of busy? Maybe he was just being paranoid.

"Go Sebastian. You'll be fine. Don't give them any trouble."

Sebastian grimaced at his mother's reprimand. He wasn't seeing any reasonable escape options, so he followed the woman back to a room. "So one of your molars is bothering you, right?"

"It's fine," Sebastian muttered.

The women hummed in response. "Okay, then I'll just have the dentist come in and take a look around. Go ahead and sit down and he'll be back shortly."

Sebastian begrudgingly sat down and allowed a paper bib to be put over him. He sat there for a few minutes, trying to convince himself that he'd be okay; only really coming up with stupid reasons like 'well I probably won't die'. Sooner than he would have liked an older man with graying hair came in. "So Sebastian, your mom tells me you've got a tooth that's bothering you," he said as he came in and washed his hands.

Sebastian's heart was pounding at this point and he was sure the contents of his stomach would empty itself at any second. "Believe it or not, you're not the first one who's told me that today," he remarked, "but no I don't. My teeth are fine."

That seemed to be amusing because the man let out a small laugh. "Alright, we'll see about that." He walked back over. "So how old are you?" he asked, reclining the chair.

Sebastian hated small talk, but he answered, if for no other reason than to keep tools out of his mouth. "I'm 15. I'll be 16 in March."

"Oh, I see," he said, flipping on the light and shining it over Sebastian's mouth. "Alright Sebastian, I need you to open your mouth so I can see what's going on."

Sebastian glanced at the two tools in his hands in damn near horror. "I told you that everything's fine," he persisted.

"If everything's fine then why you aren't you opening your mouth, Sebastian?" he said, smirking from under his mask. "Open," he instructed again.

Sebastian squirmed uncomfortably, realizing there wasn't an 'out' here. So he kept his eye glued on the tools as he slowly opened his mouth.

The dentist wasted no going in and taking a look around. "Hm... Are you sure you aren't feeling any pain, Sebastian?" he asked as he approached the sore tooth. He look at it for a few seconds before scratching at it.

Sebastian felt him digging at his sore tooth and held back a flinch at the shock of pain. He shook his head childishly.

"Really? My explorer is getting caught here. Teeth are supposed to be hard and it's pretty soft right here, indicating this is a cavity. A decent sized one at that. You're certain that you aren't feeling this?" As to prove a point he dug the explorer into the sore area.

Sebastian couldn't hide how much it hurt that time. "Ah!" he said, flinching away.

The dentist laughed a little. "That's what I thought," he said, putting down his tools. "I'll be back in a few minutes, and we'll get right to fixing that for you," he said condescendingly.

Sebastian laid there blinking back tears as the guy left. His tooth was now aching even more and he was silently trying to keep panic attack from erupting. He wanted to leave so damn badly, but the idea of trying to explain this to his mother kept him there. 'He's scary and kind of mean' wouldn't go over too well. She never took him seriously anyway.

The assistant came in and took x-rays of his tooth, and a few minutes later the dentist came back in and was ready to start. Now they were both hovering over him again, and Sebastian was starting to rethink this. Maybe he could just walk, or ran, running seemed reasonable right now, back to Dalton.

"Alright Sebastian, open up again. I'm going to numb you now. This will pinch a little but it shouldn't be too bad."

Sebastian was tempted to shake his head and refuse, but at this point he was feeling too embarrassed to protest so he opened anyway. As expected the dentist then stabbed him with the needle, and the anesthetic stung terribly going in but after a few seconds he started to go kind of numb.

"Good Sebastian. Let's start, this shouldn't take long."

"A-aren't you supposed to wait a little longer? I'm not numb yet," Sebastian fretted.

"This stuff acts pretty fast. You'll be fine. Go ahead and open up again."

Sebastian numbly openly his mouth again, and this time he was greeted with the loud squeal of a drill, and the sound alone was panic-inducing. It didn't hurt at first, but slowly the uncomfortable pressure melted into a painful sting. He really tried to ignore it, but this was really starting to hurt. His breathing got more rapid and he was gripping the armrest.

"It always is the lower first molars that are the most sensitive," he commented. "This area is harder to get numb, so this might feel a little more uncomfortable. Just hang in there, son."

Sebastian squeezed his eyes shut and crossed his arms. His feet were moving around uncomfortably and he was trying not to flinch. The stinging was really painful and he couldn't stay still. When he moved his mouth starting closing out of instinct.

"I need you to keep still, Sebastian. You can't close your mouth either. You're just dragging this out for longer than it needs to be," the dentist sighed. He made his assistant retrieve a mouth prop from a drawer and he stuck it into Sebastian's mouth. "Stay still or I'll have my assistant hold your head still, Sebastian. Don't be difficult," he reprimanded before picking up his work once again.

Sebastian's mouth was now held open painfully wide and the pain of the drill returned. The now violent stabbing pains continued and he was forced to lay there and take it.

The dentist paused temporarily to dig at the hole he made in Sebastian's tooth with the explorer. "Hm... This one is deeper than I thought. There's still decay I need to get out. Sebastian, you really should have come in sooner. This cavity is deep," he comment, still digging at the tooth.

Sebastian cringed at the violently digging movement and he turned his head away.

"Oh Sebastian, don't be such a girl about this. It's not that bad. I'm nearly finished, I just need to get this last bit of decay."

The assistant now held his head in place as the dentist went back to drilling at his tooth again. Sebastian was hyperventilating now and cringing with every movement of the drill. This was literal torture and at this point he was hoping he'd faint. He shamefully laid there and let the horrible dentist drill away at his tooth, crying and trembling. After a few more minutes it stopped and the dentist filled his tooth with an ugly silver filling material. The second Sebastian was free he found the nearest bathroom and reached violently into the toilet as his stomach physically couldn't hold it in anymore. Never again.

His mom dropped him back off at school and she left, and Sebastian went back to his dorm room. Naturally Hunter bombarded him with questions as soon as he walked in the door.

"How was it?" Hunter asked, sitting up on his bed and propping himself up on one elbow to look at Sebastian.

"Fuck you, Hunter. Don't you dare fucking talk to me. You went behind my back and told her! I know it was you, nobody else knew."

"You wouldn't have done it otherwise. Well, even if you hate me your face doesn't hurt anymore so I'm fine with it," Hunter shrugged.

"Don't pretend that you care about me. Not after putting me through that. Fuck you, Hunter," Sebastian fumed. He then went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him and turning on the shower so Hunter wouldn't hear him breakdown. He never thanked Hunter for what he did, he didn't talk about it, and the experience was something that would continue to haunt him for years to come.

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 **A/N: Wowie, that was sad. I'm sorry. The next chapter (which I actually wrote before this, this chapter was originally a flashback) is much happier in comparison to this one. It takes place 12 years later. Hopefully I'll have it up soon because I have a good portion of it written already. This story will probably have 2 more chapters. So is anyone reading this? What do you guys think? Tell me in a review is you want to. I'll love you forever and ever if you do! :D (Also is the title lame? Just because it's a Fall Out Boy quote doesn't make it cool, you feel me?)**


	2. Chapter 2

**I** **Think You're My Best Friend**

 **A/N: I love you guys too much to leave you with that! You all should know I might actually be addicted to reading your reviews. Every time I get stumped and don't know what to write I reread them and basically tell myself "c'mon you gotta think of something awesome". I mean obviously reading them made me really happy but also kind of sad because I freaked some of you out. So you'll just have to accept this new chapter as my apology ;)**

 **(Also don't worry I gave Sebastian a hug from all of you even though he doesn't like hugs too much. He kind of just squirmed away awkwardly and told me to stop touching him** **but I'm sure he appreciated it.)**

 **(Also my author's notes are always** **ridiculously long. Sorry my dudes I talk a lot. On with the story!)**

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 _*12 years later*_

"Sebastian, you're being even more of an asshole than usual. Why are you being such an ass? Do you need a Snickers or something?" Hunter asked, glaring at the said grumpy asshole.

Sebastian gave Hunter a tired side-glance. "I'm generally not the friendliest person to be around, haven't you caught onto that by now? I'm not acting anymore asshole-y than usual."

Hunter huffed. "I'm aware, but you are acting like more of an ass tonight. What's the word? Hm... Oh! A douce, you're acting like a douce. You just yelled at the bartender, man. That's a low even for you."

"Hunter, I'm telling you, I'm just a massive dick. Keep up," Sebastian said with a cocky shit-eating grin. Honestly he was being extra grumpy and mean tonight.

Hunter looked Sebastian over again, as if trying to find a way to get him to talk. "A massive dick with coffee stains," he added simply. The thing was, Hunter wasn't just randomly being a total dick to his friend, there was a method to his madness. He suspected Sebastian had been hiding a toothache from him. It was small subtle things that gave it away, things that a normal person wouldn't have noticed. Well, Hunter wasn't exactly normal in the sense that he couldn't help but pick up on certain body language that he was used to seeing everyday. Sebastian had been uncomfortably shifting his jaw all night, only chewing on one side of his mouth (which wouldn't have been that easy to spot, but apparently Sebastian wasn't good at hiding a sore tooth because he figured it wasn't obvious when he shoved a bunch of food in one side of his mouth), and occasionally Hunter caught him messing with some tooth at the back of his mouth with his tongue. Well, that one was a little more obvious than the others because the face that came along with it was rather stupid looking.

Sebastian's cocky smile fell and Hunter could have sworn he looked self-conscious for a second, but an instant later it melted back into his usual cocky demeanor. Though, it did take him a few good seconds to think of a comeback. "You poor thing, I think your eyesight is starting to give out on you. You might want to get that checked."

Hunter laughed at Sebastian's lame excuse for a comeback. "God man, you're off your game tonight."

"Well you're off your game every night, so I suppose I'm still doing better than you."

Hunter didn't bother defending himself because they both knew that wasn't true. "Well Sebastian, as much as I'm sure you'd love for me to change the subject, I have to ask. Have you been seeing someone?"

"Hunter, you know I don't kiss and tell," Sebastian replied simply, taking a sip of his beer.

Hunter rolled his eyes tiredly. "That's not what I meant and you know it. A dentist Sebastian, have you been seeing a dentist?"

Sebastian took another sip of his beer, trying to look casual but Hunter could tell by the slight tremor in his hand that he was getting nervous. "Hunter, the last time I checked you weren't my mother. So unless you have some news to break to me, do me a favor and stop talking."

Hunter let out a small nose laugh. "Sebastian, I am your mother," he exclaimed in his best Darth Vader impression.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "You have no right to complain about being single when you say things like that. You're doing it to yourself, that's why you're single my friend."

"Hey, ladies dig Star Wars," Hunter defended. "Anyway Sebastian, you know you're just trying to change the subject. I'm making you uncomfortable and you don't want to admit it."

"I couldn't care less about your patronizing, Hunter."

"Oh don't give me that bullshit, I know you're uncomfortable talking about this and I know you're scared shitless of the dentist. You forget I was there Sophomore year when your mom flew in and dragged your ass there. You were terrified." It was then that Hunter realized his tactics weren't exactly helpful, because now Sebastian was getting embarrassed and uncomfortable and he was shielding it with anger.

Sebastian's face now burned an angry shade of red, and he hopped off the bar stool. Hunter didn't have the to talk about that, he had no fucking idea. "I don't know what the hell you're trying to prove here, but I'm leaving. Drink here alone. Maybe someone will take pity on your pathetic ass and you'll get laid," Sebastian spat angrily.

Hunter got up and followed Sebastian outside. "I'm sorry, that was a dick move on my part. I'll drop it, but you never told me what was wrong," he tried.

"You," Sebastian said simply. "You won't get off my ass, that's what's wrong."

"Well, I'm not completely sure where you think you're going anyhow, I'm your ride home," Hunter countered.

Sebastian sighed in frustration. "I'll call a cab."

"Alright, call a cab then," Hunter paused, "ooooor you can come back inside and we can pretend I never brought up the thing you don't want to talk about," he added.

Sebastian thought about it for a few seconds before putting his phone back in his pocket. "Okay fine, but I swear to god Hunter I will not sit here and let you patronize me. Don't bring it up again," Sebastian warned.

Hunter nodded in agreement and they went back inside. Sebastian had a few drinks (A/N: I know absolutely nothing about alcohol so you'll have to forgive me for the vagueness, so just use your imagination. I literally only know that beer tastes vaguely of what I imagine piss would taste like, and cheap wine kind of taste like cough syrup, both of which aren't going to help me write this), and he was pretty drunk by the end of the night. Hunter on the other hand spent the entire night playing pool and trying to get Sebastian drunk enough to spill his secret, but sadly Sebastian was pretty good at holding his liquor so it wasn't working as planned.

"So you still don't want to tell me what's wrong?" Hunter prompted.

"Not any more than I wanted to tell you three hours ago, Hunter."

"But you admit something is wrong?"

"Yes Hunter, something's wrong but I don't want to talk about it. Life sucks sometimes, whatever. I'm not going to whine about it to you."

Hunter sighed. "Sebastian, but as your friend I'm asking you to tell me. It's different if I'm asking to know. Please tell me."

"No chick flick moments," Sebastian reminded.

"God, you call me a nerd for liking Star Wars but you just quoted Supernatural."

"Supernatural isn't nerdy, it's cool."

"So is Star Wars."

"Nu-uh, nerd."

Hunter gave Sebastian a tired look, a silent, 'that's the best you can do?'

"Don't look at me like that, I'm drunk. I can't be a proper sasshole when I'm drunk."

"Come on Seb, spill all of your dirty little secrets to your good old friend Hunter. He's only got your best intentions in mind," Hunter said with a cheeky grin.

Sebastian shook his head. He might have been fairly drunk, but he was twice as stubborn as he was drunk and he had no intentions to tell Hunter what was actually going on with him, so he didn't. So the night ended with Sebastian crashing on Hunter's sofa.

The next morning Sebastian woke up to a mild hangover. His head had an annoying ache to it, but he was alright. Hunter on the other hand felt fine as he only had a single beer throughout the course of the night. So he was making breakfast.

Sebastian walked into the kitchen, only half awake with his hair going in several different messy directions.

"Coffee's in the pot," Hunter said.

"If only coffee actually helped with hangovers," Sebastian commented, pouring himself a cup.

"The placebo effect is a very powerful tool, my friend. Believe in the coffee," Hunter commented. "Or, you know, Advil probably works too," he added, tossing Sebastian a bottle of Advil. (#notsposed because this isn't YouTube but hey Advil hit me up if you're interested ;)

Sebastian gratefully accepted the bottle Hunter tossed at him. "So what are you cooking?"

"Pancakes. They look really nice, I'm not sure why I don't have my own cooking show yet; I'm great," Hunter answered. He finished making the pancakes and made a plate for Sebastian. It had said pancakes with syrup and various fruits with a side of sausage. "So Sebastian, still don't wanna tell me what's wrong?"

"Well, you see Hunter, my childhood was very traumatic. It was full of pancake deprivation and all kinds of messed up stuff. My mom never shared her pancakes with me, it still haunts me to this day. I'm just... I'm having flashbacks. Oh god Hunter it was so traumatic," Sebastian said over dramatically.

Hunter rolled his eyes in un-amusement. "Alright, fine. If you don't want to talk about it I'll talk at you. I think I owe it to you anyway, and I'm tired of dancing around the topic. Listen Sebastian, I'm sorry about what I did sophomore year. I shouldn't have went behind your back and told her, I'll admit that was wrong, but I don't regret doing it. You wouldn't have gotten out of pain otherwise. You were relieved when it was over and you weren't in pain anymore." Hunter could see in Sebastian's eyes that he was angry. "You're angry. Is it at me? I want to understand Sebastian. Tell me why you're angry, yell at me if you want to. Just tell me, please."

Sebastian shook his head, laughing to himself bitterly. "I was not relieved," he chocked out. "You don't get it, Hunter. Everything wasn't fucking fine! You don't know what it was like for me, what that guy did to me. It was anything but okay!"

"Sebastian, what happened?" Hunter asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"No. I'm not talking about it," Sebastian refused.

"Why not? You can trust me Sebastian, I'm just trying to help."

"Hunter, I can't."

"Yes you can."

"No Hunter, understand what I'm saying you ass. I can't, I physically can't," Sebastian snapped. "We're dropping this before you get to see the lovely breakfast you cooked for the second time."

Hunter sighed but ended up dropping the subject for now.

It didn't come up again until Hunter met back up with Sebastian a few days later to check in on him. He walked into his apartment, not bothering to knock.

"I could have been naked, Hunter. Learn to knock," Sebastian said tiredly.

"I could have been a murderer, learn to lock your door," Hunter said simply.

"Touché."

Hunter sat down on the sofa next to Sebastian, now getting a good chance to look at him. What he was greeted with officially made him done with this beating around the bush shit.

"My god Sebastian have you seen your face?!" Hunter exclaimed, turning Sebastian's face to him.

"Hunter, don't put your damn hand on my face. My face is fine," he said, smacking Hunter's hand away.

"No, this is ridiculous. I'm tired of waiting for you to admit something's wrong because it's gotten to the point where your face is telling me for you," he said, standing up and standing in front of Sebastian to get a better look at him.

Sebastian stood up and tried to walk away from Hunter casually but he was trembling. "Hunter it's fine," he said quickly. "I-it doesn't hurt that much. It doesn't hurt at all after a few shots of vodka so that means it isn't serious."

"Your reasoning is fucking stupid. Vodka isn't going to fix this you moron. Your tooth is infected now, that's why your cheek is swollen. This needs to be taken care of now, Sebastian. If the infection gets into your bloodstream you could die," Hunter said, getting up and following Sebastian and backing him into a corner so he couldn't scurry away. "Let me see. I need to see if there's an abscess."

"Hunter back off!" Sebastian yelled as his heart beat violently in his chest. "Don't fucking touch me! This is none of your business, now move! I don't want to hurt you, Hunter."

"We both know I'm stronger than you, Sebastian. I'm not going to hurt you, just let me look. This is my business, I'm your friend and I care even if you don't get that now," he pressed.

Sebastian was getting really freaked out because Hunter was literally backing him into a corner. So out of instinct when he got too close Sebastian took a swing at Hunter's face and hit him square in the eye.

"Ahh, fuck you you little shit!" he screamed. "Oh I should kick your ass for that!" Hunter was pissed now, so he grabbed Sebastian's wrist and twisted it back to incapacitate him. He then pinned Sebastian's arm behind his back and tackled him to the floor.

"Ow, shit! Hunter I didn't mean to punch you in the face, I'm sorry," Sebastian apologized. "Please let me up, I won't punch you again."

"I think you should just stare at the floor and think about what you did."

"Hunter, but this hurts."

"So does my face you asshole."

Hunter had Sebastian pinned down for a few seconds so he could cool down and resist the urge to kick his ass, and hopefully to let Sebastian find whatever slice of sanity he had left.

"Alright, I'll let you up if you let me look at your tooth. It'll take a few seconds tops," Hunter offered.

"And if I don't let you?"

"Then we're going to sit here on the floor all day. Now I don't know about you, but there's a number of ways I'd like to spend my Wednesday, none of which include pinning your sorry ass to the floor. So Sebastian, how is our lovely Wednesday going to proceed?"

Sebastian's arm was in quite a painful position, so he agreed. "Fine, fine. I'll let you look Hunter, just get your Hulk ass off of me."

Hunter rolled his eyes and let Sebastian up. "Why am I the Hulk? You're the one that punched me in the fucking face, Sebastian. I think it's reasonable that I restrained you. That's what you're supposed to do with violent psychopaths."

Sebastian casually got up off the floor. "Well I didn't plan to punch you again..." he defended lamely. He looked at Hunter and noticed one of his eyes were turning an ugly red color. "Oh my god your eye looks gross."

"Hm, I wonder why!" Hunter shouted. He took a second to calm himself before turning back to Sebastian. "Come on, we're going in the bathroom where the lightings better so I can look." Sebastian looked skeptical and didn't follow Hunter to the bathroom. Hunter gave him a warning glare in response. "Sebastian I swear to god if you don't get your ass over here I'll pry your mouth open myself."

Sebastian wanted to be stubborn, but he was genuinely terrified of his friend at the moment and figured now wasn't the best time to press his buttons, so he walked into the bathroom. "You're not going to touch it, right?"

"No Sebastian, I'm just going to look. I won't even touch your face. I don't have gloves so you're just going to pull your cheek back and let me look," he explained. "Can you do that for me, Sebastian?"

"No, never mind I can't do this. Hunter please don't make me it's fine," Sebastian said, trying to leave.

Hunter tiredly grabbed Sebastian by the wrist and easily kept him from leaving the bathroom. "Okay, Sebastian if this is going to work you have to be completely honest with me or I'm just going to assume that you're lying and we'll do this my way. Got it? Right now you're uselessly lying to me, your face is swollen, you can't exactly hide that. It's there a bump or pimple thing on the gum area where your tooth is? I know that sounds gross but this is important and I need to know."

Sebastian shook his head. "No, it has to be something else. I don't have that," he said quickly.

Hunter looked at Sebastian skeptically before taking his arm and pulling him back over to himself. "You have 3 seconds before I pry your mouth open. Tell me the truth, Sebastian. One... two... th-" Sebastian cut him off.

"Okay, okay! Don't do that please. Fine I do but please don't make me show you. This is embarrassing Hunter," Sebastian fretted.

Hunter seemed please with that answer, so he let go of Sebastian's arm. "Alright. I believe you, but I really do need to look. It's important that I see how bad it is. I genuinely don't give a shit about anything other than what I'm looking for. I'm trying to make you feel better about this, but ultimately it's either you show me willingly or I have to make you, and I really don't want to do that because I'm too damn tired to manhandle you again, and I'm not wearing gloves. I mean you have no idea how clean my hands are, do you really want me to have to stick my hand in your mouth?" Hunter saw that Sebastian wasn't making a run for it, but he wasn't complying yet either and he was getting tired of playing this game. "Dammit Sebastian, just come here and pull your cheek back for 5 seconds. That's literally all I'm asking if you."

Sebastian was trying to look super tough but he knew Hunter was going to pry his mouth open at any seconds, and he really didn't want to endure that but he was too embarrassed to let Hunter see. His mind was racing with thoughts and he effectively freaked himself out and fainted.

"Sebastian? Seb are you okay you look kind of- oh shit!" Hunter quickly caught Sebastian before he could hit his head on the floor by grabbing him from underneath the shoulders. He struggled under Sebastian's dead weight, but somehow managed to drag him back over to the sofa. "You better be glad I lift, otherwise you would have a concussion," Hunter spoke to the unconscious body that was currently his friend. He grabbed a wet rag and put it on his forehead because he was nice, but before that he used the same rag to pull back Sebastian's cheek and take a look at what he was hiding. He sighed, that wasn't pretty. He let his cheek go and folded the rag back up. Then gently placed the rag on Sebastian's forehead to make up for the fact he just invaded his his privacy. It didn't count now.

"Seeeebbbbaastain, wake uupppp. You're not dead, right? I really hope you're not dead. If you're dead that means I probably killed you and that's REALLY illegal so I need you to wake up," Hunter continued to the unconscious body. He got tired of waiting after 30 seconds so he filled a cup up with ice water and dumped it onto Sebastian's head. He wasn't actually sure if it would work but apparently it did because it definitely got a reaction out of Sebastian.

He screamed and sat up pretty quickly. "What the FUCK HUNTER!" Sebastian shouted.

"Ah, you're awake. Welcome back to the land of the living my friend. You fainted by the way, or you've just risen from the dead. I don't know, l'm not a real doctor."

Sebastian got up and brushed the ice cubes off of himself. "Clean it up you dick."

"Oh don't be dramatic. Water evaporates. It'll basically clean itself. Anyway, Sebastian you've got a very painful looking dental abscess that is going to require antibiotics for at least a week. Then the swelling will go down and we can get to the root of the problem," Hunter explained casually, resisting the urge to laugh at his unintentional pun.

"You looked while I was unconscious?" Sebastian fumed.

"Well do you really think I was going to pass up that opportunity?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes, sitting down on the dry side of the sofa. "So what, you give me drugs that make my face un-puff itself and then replace the dumbass filling that did this?"

Hunter thought about what he said next very carefully. "Well, you're not wrong, the filling did do this. That's why I hate amalgam, larger ones are more prone to fractures, which looks like what happened with yours. Then decay manifested in the area and made a nice little home out of your tooth and ate the absolute shit out of it." Hunter was proud of himself for not letting the part about how Sebastian was going to need a root canal to fix this, but then realized that he probably didn't word that in the best way.

Sebastian grew extremely embarrassed and turned red. "Ugh, dammit Hunter! That's why I didn't want you to see it!" he shouted in anger and embarrassment. The room was silent for a few seconds before Sebastian spoke. "Please just leave," he whispered.

For once Hunter was at a lose for words, so he just rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I, uh... I mean I can stay here and we can talk if you want," he offered.

Sebastian shook his head. "Man, you've got a black eye. Go home, take care of yourself. Put some ice on that shit, you look like a guy who got his ass kicked."

Hunter could see that Sebastian wasn't acting like himself, his sassiness was lacking the usual spark behind it. He seemed really sad even though he was trying to cover it up. "Are you okay, Sebastian?"

Sebastian laughed bitterly, whatever allusion of calmness he was holding onto slipping away. The stress broke free and he started yelling again. "Do I look okay? My fucking face is falling apart, today I punched my best friend in the face, oh and you're going to drill holes into my tooth in a week. No I'm not fucking okay!"

"Sebastian, we can tal-" Hunter started to offer.

"Hunter, just go! I don't need you to stay here and feel sorry for me and my broken face. I don't want you here. I want to be alone," Sebastian snapped.

"Alright," Hunter said slowly. "I'll bring the antibiotics by for you later on along with something for the pain. Call me if you need anything." Hunter decided that the best thing he could do for Sebastian for right now was leave him alone. So he left.

* * *

 **A/N: More is coming soon! It's currently past 4AM and I desperately need sleep, but I promise the good stuff will happen next chapter. Sorry you guys didn't really get to see (read) dentist mode Hunter in this chapter but I swear it's coming. I think this story will be a little longer than I originally anticipated... Hm... Anyway, you guys can totally leave me a review because I stayed up late to get this up. But you know, to each their own. (Also did your brains explode because Megan and I updated back to back? Mahahahahah)**


	3. Chapter 3

**I Think You're My Best Friend**

* * *

After Hunter left Sebastian had some free time to effectively freak out. Really freak out.

He watched as Hunter shut the door to the apartment, and there was this small voice in his head that wanted to beg his friend not to leave. Whether it have been that he quite literally couldn't find his voice, or that he was too scared to admit he needed someone, Hunter ended up leaving and Sebastian was forced to deal with all of the impending emotions he was trying to avoid feeling. Unfortunately, it just didn't work like that. It's impossible to deny yourself the act of feeling, so Sebastian broke down.

It all hit him like a bus, every single emotion that he was holding back escaped at once. His breathing started to grow rapid, and before he knew it he was full on hyperventilating and chocking on his own breaths. He was absolutely hysterical, and he didn't realize he was sobbing until he saw the tear stains on his shirt.

When the choking started to burn his throat he realized how unpleasant this was and tried to calm down, but it wasn't that simple. Physically his body was reacting on its own and it was out of his control. He couldn't breathe.

Then the tingly headed feeling came and everything got fuzzy, and that's when Sebastian stumbled over to the sofa to lay down incase he fainted.

He didn't, he just huddled in on himself and sobbed. So there he was, a gross sobbing mess. He wasn't sure how long it lasted, but at some point the hyperventilating melted into tiny hiccups. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was a gross snotty nose that was extremely inefficient when it came to breathing.

So that's how Hunter found him a few hours later. On the sofa curled in on himself. He woke him up by throwing a brown bag at him.

"I brought you drugs."

"What?" Sebastian sat up, mildly confused and only half awake.

"Drugs Sebastian, keep up. One bottle is a stronger dose of Ibuprofen, in the other bottle you'll find tiny miracle pills that keep the infection in your face from killing you," Hunter explained smoothly. He made Sebastian scoot over and he sat down next to him. "You okay, Seb?"

Sebastian crinkled his nose at Hunter and got up. He wordlessly went into the bathroom and came back with a bottle of Febreze.

Hunter looked confused and only gave Sebastian a questioning look.

Sebastian said nothing as he casually sprayed Hunter with the bottle of Febreze.

"Ah! Sebastian what the hell?" Hunter shouted.

"You smell like dentist's office."

Sebastian eventually stopped spraying Hunter with air freshener and they had a relaxing night. They didn't exactly have any heartfelt conversations, but Sebastian enjoyed his friend's silent company.

A few days later he returned to Sebastian's house to retrieve him for the day's events. Hunter had to knock this time because sadly Sebastian remembered to lock his door today so he couldn't just walk in. He knocked a few more times when Sebastian didn't answer. "Sebbbbaaaaastain, open the door. Seeeebbaaaaaaaaaastain. Hello? Seeebbbaaasta-" he was cut off by the door being swung open.

"Would you shut the hell up," Sebastian said in annoyance as he opened the door.

"You should give me a key to your apartment," Hunter announced, pushing past Sebastian and walking in.

"Hunter, you aren't my boyfriend. I'm not getting you a key. What do you want anyway?" Sebastian asked tiredly.

"You're off today, right?"

"I've been off for the last few days. I can't exactly go to work with my face looking like this. I told them I have the flu and they basically told me to keep that shit to myself," Sebastian answered simply. "Why?" he asked, sounding more reluctant now.

"Oh good, then you're free for our date. Go get dressed, I have an exciting day planned for us," Hunter said with a mocking grin.

"No Hunter, I don't want to go anywhere," Sebastian said uncomfortably, having a feeling that he knew where Hunter was going with this. "Besides, you said that you can't do that thing that you need to do to my face until I've been on the antibiotics for at least a week. Isn't that where you're going with this?"

"Um... Not exactly," Hunter started. "Today I'm going to show you around my office and we're going to talk about our feelings and stuff. I'll probably clean your teeth if you let me, it'll be super easy. I'm trying to let you learn to swim before I throw you in the deep end, do you get what I'm saying? You need to work on getting more comfortable with this stuff, Sebastian."

Sebastian wasn't liking this idea and unconsciously made some more space between himself and Hunter. "I don't need to work on anything. I'm not doing this today, Hunter. I'm fine."

"Sebastian, have you forgotten that you punched me in the face a few days ago just because I wanted to look? I'd say you still have some stuff you need to work on. Now go get dressed you ass, this date isn't optional," Hunter persisted. He rolled his eyes as Sebastian tried to scurry away and avoided looking at him, but he decided to not be mean and make Sebastian face him. If being on the other side of the room made him feel better then Hunter wasn't going to stop him.

"I don't want to, Hunter," Sebastian argued lamely.

Hunter sighed. "Look, I'm trying to be nice and give you the option to change out of your sweatpants. Like I said, look at this as more of a mandatory date. Your options are walking out of here with me fully dressed, or being drug out of here in sweatpants."

Sebastian wasn't going to give in that easily, and quite frankly the authority Hunter thought he had over him was irritating. "Dammit Hunter, I said no!" Sebastian shouted. "I'm a grown ass man, this isn't up to you."

Hunter raised his eyebrows questioningly at his friend's outburst. "You say that you're an adult, but the behavior I'm observing from you is that of a frighten child. Now, if you're actually this adult that you're claiming to be then you'd go get dressed and come with me, and you would stop having a damn fit because you don't want your teeth cleaned."

Sebastian's face turned red out of embarrassment, Hunter was right. He wasn't going to win this argument. So he let out a huff before slamming his bedroom door shut to get dressed.

"Did slamming the door make you feel better, Sebastian?"

"It did actually!" Sebastian shouted from his bedroom.

Hunter grinned in amusement at his friend's behavior and patiently waited for him to get ready.

As Sebastian got dressed he started to grow shaky and nauseous. He would never admit how much the prospect of this was actually freaking him out, and he couldn't help but wonder if that was part of the problem. Would talking about why he was so afraid make him feel any better? He couldn't imagine sitting down and spilling everything to Hunter, it was so much easier not to talk about it.

So Sebastian walked back out into the living room after getting dressed and brushing his teeth throughly; and flossing again even though he did it last night. He honestly couldn't believe he was agreeing to this, it almost felt like he was betraying himself. The only reason he was doing this was because it was too embarrassing not to.

"I'm impressed, Sebastian. Look at you, properly adulting and all. Are you ready? Did you brush your teeth and stuff?"

Sebastian gave Hunter a tired 'no shit' look. "No Hunter, the idea didn't occur to me."

Hunter smirked. "Alright, then let's go. Are you feeling okay?"

Sebastian followed Hunter outside to his car as they spoke. "Why wouldn't I be? I mean this is just a cleaning... I shouldn't be worried, right?" He knew logically this wasn't a big deal, but there was also that part of himself that was wondering what the hell he agreed to. He hadn't actually done this in... years? Yeah, years. Shit, quite a few years actually. This was going to be beyond humiliating.

Hunter smiled convincingly. "Of course not. This is easy, Sebastian. Normal people do this every 6 months might I remind you."

Sebastian climbed into the passenger seat against his better judgment. He was starting to feel kind of sick and his body felt weak. He definitely didn't feel okay. 'What the fuck did I agree to?' he wondered.

As Hunter started to drive he noticed how distressed Sebastian was starting to look, and his heart ached with sympathy for his friend. He wasn't completely heartless after all. "Sebastian, you don't have to pretend that you're okay. I would expect you not to be given the reaction I received from you the other day, and when I say reaction I mean you punching me in the face," Hunter said with a smirk. "If you have any questions or concerns I'm an open book my friend."

Sebastian only shook his head in response. "It's fine. I'm fine."

Hunter didn't believe Sebastian for a second, but he wasn't going to force his friend to voice his worries. "Sebastian, you're going to be fine," he comforted lamely.

"Thanks Hunter, I'm cured now."

"Well I can't actually help comfort you if I don't know what's freaking you out. If you want my help then you have to work with me, Sebastian," Hunter said simply.

Sebastian huffed in annoyance. "It's not that simple, Hunter. It's not one thing that's freaking me out, it's everything. I don't want to lay there with that dammed light shining in my face, and I sure as hell don't want different tools sticking out of my mouth while you do shit that I can't see, and I really don't want you to be fucking around with my mouth in the first place. I don't need to be that close to you, god. Do you realize how awkward these types of situations are in the first place? It sure as hell doesn't help that you're my friend."

"Well would you rather it be a stranger, Sebastian? Look at it this way, it'll be far less embarrassing to bite me than a total stranger. You've already punched me in the face, it can't get worse than that."

Now Sebastian rolled his eyes. "I get that I punched you in the face and you have every right to bring it up as many times as you want, but you should know that joke isn't funny anymore," he said tiredly. "But instead of being a sarcastic asshole can you try being serious for two seconds? Tell me something to make me feel better dammit!"

"I promise that I'm nothing like that other guy if that's what you're worried about. If you want me to stop I'll stop the second you tell me to, if you need a break then I'll respect that, if you want to be high as a kite during all of it then that works too. Like I said, you have nothing to worry about. This is just a cleaning, Sebastian. Focus on that. I've dealt with 4 year olds that are taking this better than you are," Hunter tried to comfort his friend.

"You could have left out the part where you compared me to a 4 year old. You were doing good up until that."

"I tried," Hunter shrugged. He then pulled up to his office and parked in the spot with his name on it. It was a plaza in a nice part of town. Ironically his office was right next to a Peterbrooke Chocolatier.

It was then that Sebastian realized how utterly fucked he was. He had no idea how close Hunter's office was. "You didn't tell me your office was here."

"Well you never asked. In fact if I recall correctly you try avoiding the topic like the plague. Anyhow, let's get a move on," Hunter said climbing out and hoping Sebastian would follow suit.

Sebastian sat in the car for a few extra seconds while Hunter looked at him expectantly. It took his friend all of 5 seconds to get sick of waiting on him before he walked around and opened the passenger door.

"Out, Sebastian. Come on. I don't feel like dragging you out by the ear."

Sebastian glared at Hunter in a silent challenge for a few seconds, but Hunter wasn't backing down. So he shamefully got out of the car.

Hunter took it upon himself to now push Sebastian towards the building from behind.

"Hunter, how's about we forget this and get some chocolate instead?" Sebastian tried lamely in regards to the ironically placed Peterbrooke.

"Maybe afterwards if you're good."

"Why did you place your office next to a chocolate shop, Hunter?" Sebastian mused.

"More business, duh." Hunter unlocked the doors to his office and flipped on the lights. It was Saturday so nobody else was there.

It was now that the anxious feeling crawled its way back into Sebastian's stomach. Hunter's office most definitely had the signature smell of a dentist's office, and it was making Sebastian nauseous. "Oh god, you couldn't make your office not smell like this? Why Hunter, why? I hate it. I want to leave now. We'll come back when you make it not smell like satan's asshole."

Hunter shook his head in amusement. "It can't be that bad, it just smells clean from what I can remember. I don't smell it anymore. You know how everyone's house has a smell, but you can't smell the smell of your own house unless you've been gone for a while? It's like that. You'll get used to it."

"I feel like I'm going to be sick," Sebastian commented.

"Try to keep your cookies down, we'll be out of here soon. Sooner if you'd move your ass."

Sebastian shook his head and stood firmly in place.

"Sebastian, come on. You've got nothing to be afraid of. This is just a quick cleaning, I'll walk you through everything and I'll explain what I do before I do it. You have to try," Hunter tried to coaxed his friend.

Sebastian still seemed unsure, but followed Hunter back to the room anyway. Logically there wasn't a reason to put up a fight yet. This wasn't even the hard part.

Hunter smiled reassuringly at Sebastian as he lead him back to a room. "I need to grab a few things really quick, but you can go ahead and sit down."

Sebastian sat down on the swivel stool instead of in the reclining chair as a final act of defiance. He was able to suppress his freak out for the time being, but he wasn't sure how long that would last. He felt pretty queasy.

Hunter came back in and gave Sebastian a tired look. "That's not what I meant." He ushered Sebastian into the correct seat and put a radiation apron over him.

"I didn't agree to let you take X-rays, Hunter."

"Sebastian, kindly shut the hell up." Hunter put on gloves and grabbed a bitewing. "Open up, please."

Sebastian glared at Hunter. "I thought you wanted me to close my mouth, and now you want me to open it? I'm getting so many mixed signals from you."

"Sebastian, I swear to fuck if you don't let me take these X-rays I'm going to allow you to let your face rot off."

"Ooh, that's an option?"

Hunter only rolled his eyes before gently forcing Sebastian's mouth open and placing in the bitewing. Sebastian tried to say something sassy but it didn't sound coherent enough for Hunter to make it out. Taking X-rays only took a few minutes, but it would have went faster if Sebastian didn't complain in between every one of them.

"Rubber gloves don't taste good," Sebastian complained.

"Well neither does most of the stuff I'm about to do so you should really get used to it now," Hunter sassed.

Sebastian continued to glare at Hunter in a displeased manner as he switched the heavy radiation apron out for a thin paper bib.

"You just aren't a happy camper today, huh?" Hunter commented as he sat back down on his swivel stool.

"I'm smiling on the inside," Sebastian said in a monotone.

Hunter smiled sarcastically at Sebastian as he reclined the chair. However, the downwards motion seemed to get Sebastian to break away from his 'I don't care' façade. He looked panicky now. Hunter's face softened in realization. "You're okay Sebastian, you're still in control. If this is going too fast you can tell me, I won't get mad at you for it. Do you need me to slow down?"

Sebastian shook his head.

Hunter still wasn't fully convinced that Sebastian was okay, but continued nevertheless. He flipped on the light and adjusted it over Sebastian's mouth. "Sebastian, I want to look at your bad tooth really quick before I start the cleaning. I'm not touching it, I'm just using a hand mirror okay?"

Sebastian was starting to freak out a little bit. He didn't like being in this position at all, it made him feel too out of control. He knew that Hunter wasn't the other guy, but he was still reluctant to trust him. "You swear that you won't touch it?"

"I swear, Sebastian. I wouldn't touch it, I know how much it's been hurting you. I only have a tiny mirror in my hand, see?" Hunter assured, showing Sebastian the tool.

"But Hunter... It's gross and stuff."

"Sebastian, I've already seen it. Yeah it's not exactly a healthy tooth but it's not your fault and I don't want you to feel bad. I just want to help. Look, it's like my job to look at gross mouths and fix them. Well, literally my job. What I'm trying to say is that yours isn't bad, okay? Please just open your mouth I'm not judging you here," Hunter tried to reassure his friend.

Sebastian struggled with himself for a few seconds before letting his mouth fall open. He didn't close his eyes, he watched Hunter cautiously as he entered his mouth with the small hand mirror.

Hunter looked at the tooth for a few seconds. "Okay Sebastian, it looks better. The infection is going down."

Sebastian closed his mouth back once the tool was out of his mouth. "That's fantastic. Can we leave now?"

Hunter smirked from under his mask. "All good things come to those who wait." He picked up the sonic scaler and showed it to Sebastian. "I'm going to use this to clean your teeth, okay? It sprays a lot of water and might feel kind of cold."

Sebastian looked at the tool unconvinced. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Sebastian, I'm overqualified for this. This is technically a hygienist's job," Hunter said, rolling his eyes. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing. This is going to be a little uncomfortable but I promise you'll live."

Sebastian unenthusiastically opened his mouth and allowed his friend to do the cleaning. It didn't exactly feel nice, but it didn't hurt. It was more like an uncomfortable vibration, it was the cold water that was most irritating. It kind of stung at some points, but it really wasn't that bad. Sebastian ended up closing his eyes in attempts to make the situation less stressful for himself. Though, he worriedly opened his eyes when Hunter approached his bad tooth.

"Don't worry Seb, I'm not going to mess with it. I know what I'm doing," Hunter assured, and he kept his word. Sebastian didn't feel any pain, Hunter seemed to work around the problem tooth. Everything was fine and dandy. Soon Hunter was finished with that part and Sebastian didn't hesitate to complain about it.

"I now remember how disgusting this is," Sebastian complained. "This tastes really gross."

"Well, teeth are gross sometimes. It's like science or something." Hunter picked up another tool, and Sebastian was just as unenthusiastic about the matter as you'd expect him to be.

"There's more?" he groaned.

"There's some stuff the sonic scalar doesn't get, I promise it won't kill you. Open please. I'm asking nicely. I'm just scrapping more shit off of your teeth, it's not that complicated really."

Sebastian opened his mouth again with an eye roll. The slightly aggressive scrapping motion was less uncomfortable than the last experience, but far more unsettling for some reason. Sebastian was embarrassingly more jumpy during this part and even took to furrowing his brows in displeasure.

Hunter took to making light of the situation. "I know it's uncomfortable, do you want me to serenade you to make it better? What's your favorite Backstreet Boy's song? Or was NSYNC more of your thing?"

Sebastian glared at Hunter dangerously in response.

Hunter looked away from his work momentarily to look at Sebastian. "So I take that as a no? That's sad. What about Nirvana? Linkin Park? Green Day? C'mon, everyone loves Green Day. Blink-182 maybe? Am I overkilling the joke? Yeah probably but you can't complain about it because my hands are in your mouth. Hm..."

Even though Hunter was trying to be funny Sebastian felt impressively uncomfortable. Hunter could talk at him all he wanted to, but that wasn't going to change the fact that he was currently scrapping shit off of his teeth. It was awkward and uncomfortable, and something about the small details were the most unsettling. The way Hunter would sometimes look away from Sebastian's teeth to check his eyes and make sure he was doing okay, sure it was sweet and all but more than anything humiliating; or the way he could kind of see what Hunter was doing to his face hole but not really because he didn't have eyes in his mouth. So that's why Sebastian closed his eyes. That was the only way the embarrassment and fear didn't consume him.

Everything was going smoothly until Hunter forgot to warn Sebastian when he started the polisher. The sound freaked him out and his hand instantly shot up and he pressed himself out of the chair.

"Hey whoa, Sebastian it's just a polisher. Calm down, you're okay. Look." Hunter tried to show Sebastian the harmless tool but his friend was effectively freaked out.

Sebastian shook his head frantically. "I don't want to do this anymore, I'm done. You're done. No more Hunter. I can't."

"Sebastian, it's harmless I promise. It's just going to make your teeth look pretty, it'll get off the coffee stains and stuff. I swear I'm not going to hurt you, look at it. Does this look like a drill head to you?"

Sebastian's face burned red in realization and he shamefully laid back down. "I don't have coffee stains," he murmured.

"They're not that noticeable," Hunter teased. "Stop looking like a kicked puppy, man. It happens, you're human."

Sebastian allowed Hunter to quickly polish his teeth when he approached with the tool again. The polisher made a lot of noise, but it was all bark and no bite. The taste was absolutely disgusting much like everything else he'd encountered today, and it was awkward trying to keep his tongue away from the offending taste.

"Sebastian, I'm going to floss your teeth really quick to get the rest of the polish stuff out and then you can rinse your mouth out. We're almost done here." Sebastian let him do that without any further arguments, and Hunter continued to babble while he worked because his friend had no other choice but to listen to him. "Well I'm glad that you floss, I don't have to give you the 'your teeth are going to fall out of your head if your keep this shit up' lecture. It gets old, really. They'll be like 'oh but I brush my teeth well' and I'll be like 'well that doesn't matter if your gums can't hold your damn teeth in your head'. Do you get what I'm saying? Flossing is important."

"Hunter, you talk way too damn much," Sebastian complained after Hunter finished.

"Well of course it's going to seem like that, it's a bit of a one sided conversation." Hunter picked up the explorer now and Sebastian glared at the offending instrument that he recognized.

"Nuuuu, you're not using that on me. You're going to stab my teeth with it," Sebastian whined. "That's what it's for, right? To stab my teeth with."

Hunter furrowed his brows. "I mean yeah it's used to check for problems, but it doesn't hurt?" he said in a confused manner.

"Why do you sound like you're lying?" Sebastian fretted.

"God Sebastian, I'm not lying to you. I said it like that because I'm confused to how someone could hurt you while doing this. If you have a cavity this tool will get caught on it, and it'll feel a little uncomfortable but it won't be excruciating or anything. It's not going to hurt you, Seb. It's just an exam."

Sebastian still looked worried. "I don't want you to look, I don't want to know how much stuff is wrong, and I really don't want you to stab me with that tool. It's going to hurt. The other guy dug into my tooth with it when I lied about the discomfort, I don't want that," he rushed out in a panic. "Please don't do that, Hunter. Please just let me leave, I can't go through this again."

Hunter set down the tools in concern and pulled down his mask to humanize himself a little. "Sebastian, listen to me. I wouldn't hurt you like that. What you just described isn't a normal occurrence, and you have my word that it's something you will never experience with me."

Sebastian stared at Hunter for a few good seconds while he gathered his thoughts. "Okay... but even if I trust that you won't hurt me that doesn't change that I really don't want to know everything that's wrong with my te– face. My face hole. That thing. I don't want to say the other word, it'll make this real."

Hunter laughed a little at his friend's reasoning. "Alright, then I won't tell you what's wrong with your face hole?" he suggested.

Sebastian shook his head. "No, that doesn't work either. I need to know."

"Well Sebastian, I've got some news for you. You can't not know and know at the same time. You gotta pick one, my friend."

Sebastian scowled at Hunter as if his own indecisiveness was his friend's fault. "Well... I guess I can't not know. It's my face hole. I need to be aware of what it's doing, unfortunately..."

Hunter smirked and pulled the mask back up to cover his face. "I think that's a good idea. I can tell you what I see during the exam. If you need me to stop you can raise your hand, but you already knew that. So, shall we continue Sebastian?"

Sebastian groaned. "I don't wanna know, Hunter."

"Well Sebastian, the thing is that unfortunately ignorance isn't bliss. Ignoring whatever's going on won't make it go away. You have to face this, and I know you know that. Buck up my friend, all things have to be dealt with eventually," Hunter consoled even though his voice was stern.

Understanding washed over Sebastian's face. "I really want to argue with you, but unfortunately I'd just be uselessly ignoring facts. I'll admit, you're right. I'm sorry for being so difficult," he said in a small voice. "Hold onto those words, you'll probably never hear me say that again."

Hunter smiled even though Sebastian couldn't see it. "Well obviously I'm right, especially when it comes to this. You don't apologize though, you haven't done anything wrong. You are doing your best and that's all I ask of you. So do you think you're ready to do this now?"

"No, but I'm going to do it anyway. Isn't that how most things work?" Sebastian gulped before nervously opening his mouth.

"Pretty much," Hunter mused. "I'm not going to get sappy or anything, but I really am proud of you for doing this. Maybe I'll even forgive you for punching me in the face."

Sebastian ignored Hunter's overused joke and watched as he entered his mouth with the tools, making sure to track his facial expression carefully.

"Well Sebastian, you clearly have good oral hygiene. I'm impressed with your flossing, which is something I never get to say, and you're brushing well. There was some stuff to clean up earlier, but that's bound to happen after being on the run for so long. Hm..." Hunter looked closer at number 2, scratching at it to see if the explorer got caught on anything. It looked fine. He moved on and worked his way over to number 14 where the explorer got caught on a fairly sized cavity on the occlusal surface. "Did you feel that a little? I'm sorry. That's a cavity Seb, but it's not that big." He continued on and found another cavity on number 31. "Erm... Yeah it looks like there's one there too but you're doing okay Sebastian. That's actually all I'm seeing, that's not bad. Besides the other thing we're dealing with right here on number 30, that's all I'm seeing. I'm impressed Sebastian, that could have been a lot worse if your hygiene wasn't as good as it is." Hunter retracted the tools and let Sebastian breathe easy again.

Sebastian was less than pleased with Hunter poking around at his teeth, but it wasn't painful. Hunter was nothing like the other guy. He could feel the explorer get caught in those two places, it had a distinct feeling and sound to it, but this was okay. He was only panicking a tiny bit on the inside. It was progress.

"So I don't need all of my teeth replaced with dentures? That's great news to hear," Sebastian chirped. "Now can we leave?" Only now Sebastian saw Hunter's face flash with something he couldn't quite pinpoint, but it freaked him out. What was that, guilt? Dread? Either way it didn't seem good. "Oh god Hunter, I saw your face just then. What aren't you telling me?"

"Sebastian, calm down. I don't want you to worry. It's nothing bad. I just... sort of need to do one more thing before we leave. It will be fast and you'll feel a lot better afterwards, I promise."

Sebastian's face screwed up in terror. "What is it?"

"Sebastian, can't you just trust that I have your best intentions in mind?"

Sebastian was starting to get frantic now, he was worried that Hunter was going to try doing something without his permission. "No I can't. Turns out when someone forcibly holds you down and takes advantage of that trust it doesn't come all that easily the next go around. Now tell me what the hell you're trying to get me to blindly agree to!"

"Sebastian, I'm not him. Don't make me feel bad for what he did."

"That's all you have to say about that, Hunter? Really? Do you think I'm telling you this because I want you to feel goddamn sorry for me?" Sebastian snapped.

"Sebastian, you know that's not what I said."

"Well quite frankly I don't give a damn about what you're trying to say unless you're telling me what the fuck you want to do to my face!"

Hunter huffed. "I have to drain the abscess, Sebastian. The antibiotics aren't going to make it go away."

"Drain the abscess? Do you mean that... the bump? That hurts a lot already Hunter no way in fuck I'm letting you drain it!" Sebastian panicked.

"I have to Sebastian, that's the only way it will go away. It's really easy, I just have to cut a small hole into-" Sebastian cut him off.

"No no no no, you're not doing that! You can't make me. Let me up Hunter. Now! Move! I'm not going to let you force me, I've seen that fucking look before and I won't let it happen again," Sebastian yelled through tears.

Hunter's eyes widened. "Sebastian, what look? I'm not going to force you. Let's just talk about this, you need to calm down."

Sebastian wasn't listening to logic right now, and as a result he frantically pushed himself out of the chair. His brain was in panic mode, he couldn't let this happen again. So he left.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed reading this, but obviously I have more coming. I'm quite proud of some of the banter I wrote, I love the way Hunter and Sebastian treat each other it's kind of hilarious. Idk though I probably laugh at the jokes I write more than you guys do, but I'm okay with that. So what did you guys think? The sun is literally going to rise in like half an hour, that's how late I stayed up writing this. What is sleep? I still need to do my nightly stuff and I might actually fall asleep trying to brush my teeth. I'm exhausted. It's worth it though because I absolutely love waking up to your reviews. (Well and I love writing of course. I reread my own stuff sometimes and think "wow this is great I'm like a genius or something".) I'm not sure where I'm going with this but you guys better review because my ass worked hard on this. (Did that sound aggressive? Probably.) I really gotta sleep now. Thanks for reading! It's pretty awesome that people read the combination of words my brain comes up with.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I Think You're My Best Friend**

 **A/N: You know what irritates me? When fanfiction authors leave their stories on a cliff hanger, and it's even worse when they take forever to update! How fucking rude, right?Oh wait... I did that? Well... I um... I hopped on the Pokemon Go bandwagon and it's been consuming my life. But hey, I maked this *offers new chapter to angry readers***

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Sebastian didn't look back until he was outside of Hunter's office. That's when he became fully aware of what he did, so he just stood there in front of the building and awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck. Well he certainly wasn't going to go back inside by account of his own freewill. So he started walking around the plaza area until he found a coffee shop and decided to hide out in there. He ordered some fancy overpriced coffee and sat down. It didn't take long for his phone to start blowing up. Apparently he had 3 missed calls and quite a few texts from his friend.

{Ok Waldo where did you go?}

{Sebastian come back)

{Sebastian}

{Sebastian)

{S}

{E}

{B}

{A}

{S}

{T}

{I}

{A}

{N}

{!}

{Stop ignoring me}

{WHERE ARE YOU?}

Sebastian rolled his eyes and put his phone on do not disturb so it would stop buzzing. Hunter was a big boy, he would find him. He sat there quietly for a little while. Right now he was feeling a false sense of security that came with ignoring problems. He knew this wasn't over, but he let himself pretend it was for now and relished in the momentary bliss. He'd drank roughly half of his coffee by the time Hunter wondered into the coffee shop.

Hunter strolled in and opted to order himself a coffee as well, figuring something good needed to come out of Sebastian's escape. Then he sat down next to his friend.

"Well if you wanted a coffee break all you needed to do was ask."

Sebastian only gave Hunter a tired look in response.

"In all seriousness Sebastian, you didn't need to run out like that. I wasn't going to hold you down or anything, but I'm sorry for trying to pull a fast one on you. I should have warned you about this beforehand," Hunter admitted.

Sebastian stirred the straw sticking out from his drink absentmindedly.

"So you're just going to ignore me?"

"Yeah, that's the plan."

Hunter sighed. "Sebastian come on, you know you're going to have to face this eventually."

"This is the face I make when I don't care," Sebastian responded in a monotone with a deadpan expression.

"Alright, fine then. I'm not going to force you. Let your face rot if that makes you happy, but you have to let me show you something," Hunter offered.

"What?"

"Well, you should know the possible consequences of this decision you're making. I just want you to be fully informed, Sebastian," Hunter said simply.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows in question. "Now why would I do that?"

"Okay, tell you what. I'll make you a deal. You at least come listen to what I have to say, look at the stuff I show you, and if you still don't want to let me do the thing then we'll leave and I won't bring it up," Hunter explained, casually sipping at his coffee.

The offer seemed too good to be true to Sebastian. "What's the catch?"

"No catch. I'm just confident that after you have all of the information you'll want to change your mind," Hunter shrugged.

Sebastian was almost irritated by how sure Hunter seemed. "Fine, but if you think convincing me will be easy you clearly have no idea how stubborn I am."

"Oh Sebastian, I'm well aware, but you know it's more than that. If you were just stubborn this would be easy. Stubborn isn't the only problem here."

So they both took their coffees and went back to Hunter's office. Hunter lead Sebastian back to his personal office and gestured for his friend to sit down next to him as he pulled something up on his laptop.

"Alright Sebastian, I want you to look at this. This is a case study I did a few years ago. The patient in question had a dental abscess around the same size as yours, and these are the long term effects. You see this here?" Hunter pointed to the X-ray and showed Sebastian the area he was talking about. "This is how much bone structure he had to begin with. I could have drained the abscess and went on to later fix the tooth, it was still salvageable at this point, but he didn't get the abscess drained and when he came back to me a year later this is what we had to deal with." Hunter pointed to the area on the other X-ray that showed significant bone loss. "The abscess essentially ate away at the bone structure surrounding the tooth, and at that point he had to lose the tooth all together. There wasn't enough bone to hold the tooth anymore, and I couldn't even give the poor guy an implant because there wasn't enough bone to hold one. He left my office with a gaping hole in his mouth, and there was nothing I could do. This is the road you're heading down. Sebastian, you're 27 years old. Do you really want to be losing permanent teeth?"

Sebastian listened closely to what Hunter said, and his stomach tightened fearfully but he did his best to keep a poker face. "So?" Sebastian said, sounding confused.

"You don't care?" Hunter concluded, not sounding convinced. "You can pretend that you don't care Sebastian, but we both know that's not true."

"I really don't. It's going to take a while for that to happen, Hunter. Why would I worry about it now?"

"Because you know damn well there will never be a good time to deal with this, Sebastian. Time goes by faster than you'd think, and before you know it it's a year later and you've permanently lost your tooth and fucked up your face forever. That X-ray is going to be you if you don't get your shit together and let me drain this abscess," Hunter said harshly, looking Sebastian right in the eyes. "You've essentially got a pimple filled with infection in your mouth right now, it's nasty and it hurts. It's gotta go. Let me evict that sucker." Hunter tried to lighten the situation a little and make up for the harshness.

Sebastian knew Hunter was right. The realization that this needed to be dealt with didn't settle in his stomach well, but it was a feeling that needed to be addressed nevertheless. Denial wasn't going to get him anywhere, this was a matter of figuring out a way to get through it, not how to avoid it. Sebastian thought about everything for a few good seconds, and then settled on asking, "Is it going to hurt?" in the smallest of voices.

Hunter gave Sebastian a small sympathetic smile. "Well I'll be honest with you, it's not going to feel good. Infection makes things acidic, and that means the whole area around that tooth is acidic. Well, lidocaine, or any type of anesthetic for that matter, don't work in acidic environments. So I can't numb you for this Sebastian, and I know that sounds scary and painful but it'll only take a second to drain the abscess. It's like popping a pimple, the second the pressure's off you feel relieved and it won't hurt anymore. So you'll feel the pinch, and that's probably going to hurt a little, but after that you're out of the woods. Do you get what I'm saying?" Hunter put it bluntly, but his eyes were kind. He definitely wasn't going to baby the shit out of Sebastian to the point of crying with him or anything like that, but he was still empathetic towards his friend and would do his best to help.

Surprisingly Sebastian didn't seem too freaked out by that answer. "So only for a second, and then it's over and we can leave?"

"Pretty much. I'll put some stuff in there to clear up the rest of the infection, but it's just that one second of pain and the pressure's off, literally and figuratively. Do you think you can deal with that?" Hunter asked hopefully.

Sebastian gave Hunter a pained expression. "I don't know, but I guess I don't have another choice. If it's just for a second... I think I can deal with that. It's the sharp reoccurring pain I can't handle."

Hunter frowned in concern. "What do you mean Seb?"

Sebastian's face blanched and he looked down to avoid Hunter's eyes. "I don't know."

"I know that's not true, but I'll drop if for now. Let's go do the thing before you talk yourself out of it." Hunter knew he needed to have a talk with Sebastian eventually, but now wasn't the time. So he threw a playful arm around his friend and lead him towards one of the treatment rooms.

"Too late, it's already happening. Hunter man you gotta distract me," Sebastian fretted, squirming and sweating already, and they weren't even back there yet.

"Hey Seb, it's gonna be okay. I showed you earlier during the cleaning that you could trust me. Right? I didn't hurt you, you were just uncomfortable," Hunter tried to comfort. That seemed to be pretty ineffective so he continued to talk in attempts to distract his friend. "Okay, storytime. So in dental school we practice cleanings on each other, but there's that one unlucky bastard that the professor demonstrates on so that all of the other students know how to clean each other's teeth," Hunter started.

Sebastian was only partly following along as he was pretty distracted with the whole impending doom thing. "Okay?" he asked. "Why do I care?"

"Let me finish, smartass. This is an embarrassing story and you're going to find satisfaction, or at the very least a momentary distraction, in my misery."

"So basically I'm going to find happiness in misery? Hm, I suppose this is what Fall Out Boy meant."

Hunter only rolled his eyes at that one, he couldn't make fun of Sebastian for a quote he himself recognized. So he just picked his story back up where he left it as he gently pushed Sebastian into the treatment room. "Anyway, naturally I was the guinea pig the professor picked, at it was humiliating. Going into dental school you know about as much as everybody else when it comes to cleaning your own face hole and stuff, so I mean there was stuff to clean because I didn't know any better," Hunter went on, gently ushering Sebastian into the chair, he clearly wouldn't sit in it voluntarily.

Sebastian sat down in the chair uneasily with his arms crossed. "So your professor got to play in your gross mouth," he concluded.

"Let me finnishhhh," Hunter whined comically as he walked over to the sink to wash his hands. "So there I was, not only under the scrutiny of the professor, but the rest of my class. He's scraping shit off of my teeth which isn't exactly a comfortable thing to experience when it's not in front of an entire class, nitpicking all of the areas where I need to brush better or floss higher, and after its all over and I'm effectively embarrassed he pulls me aside and tells me I miraculously have a cavity somehow. It was terrible."

Sebastian smirked, he did find a little satisfaction in realizing Hunter wasn't perfect either. "Well I feel better about myself now."

"Uh-huh, because you're so much better than me with your gross mouth pimple." He walked back over and clipped a bib around Sebastian for the second time today. His friend glared at him but Hunter only smiled in response.

"Well you're the one who makes a living off of popping gross mouth pimples and drilling nasty shit out of people's teeth, so I'd say your life is still more pathetic than mine."

"Yeah, so pathetic. I'll cry about it in my piles of cash." Hunter slipped on gloves as he started to recline the chair backwards with his foot, not even phased by Sebastian's comment.

That's when it really started to set in for Sebastian. He knew he'd need to open his mouth soon and allow Hunter to shove a fucking needle into his face. It was going to hurt. This wasn't even a worry, it was a fact. Hunter said himself that it was going to hurt, but honestly that wasn't the worst part. Having to lay there completely helpless and subject himself to this torment, it was by far the worst part. Hunter didn't even seem to notice. He continued to get everything in place and adjusted the light over Sebastian's mouth.

"Alright Seb, open your mouth for me. I want to look at it again," Hunter requested.

For some unknown reason Sebastian couldn't find the words to tell Hunter he needed to slow down, he couldn't find the ability to speak at all. All he could do was focus on how aggressively his heart was pounding in his chest and how the anxiety was literally making him weak. However, much to Hunter's surprise he opened his mouth because that's the only thing he could do.

Hunter pulled back Sebastian's cheek and took a good look at the abscess. "This doesn't look that bad. Let's get this over with Sebastian. Can you shut your eyes for me?"

Sebastian was staring at Hunter in pure terror. It didn't matter that Hunter was his friend, right now he was just a dentist and Sebastian couldn't see past that. This time he found control over his body and he turned his head away from Hunter and closed his mouth.

"Hey, whoa. Sebastian you're okay. What's wrong?" Hunter asked in concern.

"Trashcan," Sebastian said, pushing himself out of the chair.

"What?"

"I'm gonna puke now grab the goddamn trashcan!" Sebastian shouted.

Hunter quickly grabbed the trashcan and shoved it at Sebastian with mere milliseconds to spare before aggressive retching sounds filled the room.

"You could have just raised your hand and asked for a break," Hunter tried to joke.

"Consider this my way of telling you I needed a break," Sebastian chocked out bitterly in between vomiting. After the contents of his stomach were efficiently emptied Hunter handed him a cup of water as a lame consolation.

"I am really sorry this is so hard for you. I can see you're trying though, I know you can do this. It sucks but you can do this Sebastian."

Sebastian shook his head. "I can't. I want to go home Hunter, it's too much. I physically can't."

"What scares you so much that you honestly think you can't do this?" Hunter prompted patiently.

"Control. I don't like being this out of control and forced to trust you. I need to be in control. Letting you shove a needle in my mouth isn't exactly a situation I have control over."

"Sebastian, honestly it will only last for a second. Earlier if you could have held out for a few more seconds this would be over with. I know you can handle it. I would offer you drugs if I thought it was worth it, but this isn't even worth pulling out the gas because it's over with so fast. Think about that, alright? The sooner you let me do this we can leave," Hunter tried his best to convince Sebastian. "I'm gonna go throw out your puke, take this time to calm yourself down." He left Sebastian to his thoughts.

Sebastian knew damn well he couldn't avoid this, but he was still terrified. He seriously considered making a run for it, but honestly this was going to catch up with him eventually. Well, it already had. His current situation was proof that avoiding problems only fucked you over in the long run. So he sat there and waited for Hunter to come back. Maybe if he tried really hard he could power through this.

Hunter came back in less than two minutes later. "Alright Seb, how do you feel?" He scrubbed back in again because throwing out puke wasn't exactly sanitary.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up again," Sebastian said honestly. "Hunter, how much is this going to hurt?" he added in a small voice.

"Well I promise it won't hurt as much as getting punched in the face," Hunter said with a smirk.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "God Hunter, that was one time!" he shot back playfully. The atmosphere seemed to change a little, it seemed less tense. This was as ready as he was going to feel. "Okay Hunter, I feel like I can maybe do this if I try REALLY hard, but I need you to hurry up and take the opportunity."

"You really don't have to tell me twice." Hunter got everything back in to position again and lowered Sebastian's chair. "I'm going to tell you before I do it, and if you need me to stop raise your hand, but don't hit me in the face because that doesn't feel good."

"Well I'm sure neither does getting a needle shoved in my gross mouth pimple," Sebastian retorted.

"It doesn't but you'll be okay, I promise. Alright Seb, go ahead and open your mouth again. Remember I'll warn you before I do it."

Sebastian opened his mouth again, looking at Hunter carefully.

"Trust me, Seb. You need to try to relax. Close your eyes."

"Uhhhuhhh," Sebastian argued.

"Yes Sebastian, it will make you feel better." Sebastian tried to say something again but it didn't come out coherent because Hunter's hand was in his mouth. "There's really no sense in arguing with me because I don't understand what you're saying anyhow."

Sebastian huffed, but pinched his eyes shut because this really was a matter of making it tolerable for himself.

"Thank you. Okay, so this is just suction. Don't panic. I'm just sucking up your spit. 4 extra years of school taught me how to do this. Ya know, suck up spit. It's really difficult."

Sebastian was starting to tremble and get nervous again, but he kept his eyes squeezed shut. Then he felt Hunter enter his mouth with something heavy and it took everything in him not to cop out. It was coming.

"Sebastian I want you to take a deep breath in through your nose."

This confused Sebastian and he silently wondered if that was his warning, but he took the deep breath in through his nose. Then his question was answered when he definitely felt Hunter stick him with the needle. It hurt pretty badly and a few panicked tears escaped his eyes.

"It's over, that's it," Hunter said quickly before Sebastian could freak out. "You did it Sebastian. I'm so proud of you. I need to pack it now, give me a few more seconds and you can close your mouth."

It hurt for a few seconds, but once the initial shock of it was over he did notice the painful pressure was gone.

Hunter sucked up all of the pus and blood and then packed some string socked in antibiotics into the small hole. "This doesn't need to be stitched up, so that's it Seb. You're done." He put a cotton ball into Sebastian's mouth and let him close it.

Sebastian wiped away the tears that escaped and sat up. "That didn't feel nice," he complained.

"I have something that might help, actually. I'll be right back." Hunter scurried off to get something, leaving Sebastian slightly confused.

When he came back he had a Peterbrooke bag in hand. He proudly handed it to Sebastian. "I told you I'd get you chocolate if you were good."

Sebastian sat there with cotton stuffed in his cheek like a little kid, and when he saw the bag he rolled his eyes, but Hunter didn't miss the tiny amused smile.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm sorry this is kind of short compared to what I normally write, but I wanted to get something out to you guys. This story still has a few more chapters left. One or two depending on how much I want to drag it out. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Feel free to review if you want to because that would be amazing. Also, honestly I have no idea how Hunter's going to make Sebastian do the thing once he finds out he needs a root canal. If you have any ideas you can totally let me know, but yeah I'll figure it out. Thanks for reading :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**I Think You're My Best Friend**

 **A/N: Ooh I've got something special in store for you guys. Sora gave me an awesome idea that you're going to read in this chapter, so thank you very much Sora. Also cuteasklaine0216 a.k.a Meg a.k.a the only reason this chapter didn't take 9 years to finish helped me write most of this, so I owe a huge thanks to her as well. So thanks to both of those amazing people and I hope the rest of you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Hunter gave Sebastian a few days to relax and allow the rest of the infection to clear up, and to be quite honest Sebastian wasn't even thinking about the situation with his tooth. Hunter had prescribed him enough pain medicine to keep it off of his mind, he wasn't in pain at all really. But the pain meds were limited and they were running low faster than he anticipated.

{Come over tonight and I'll cook your pathetic ass something to eat}

Sebastian grinned in amusement at the text from Hunter.

{My hot date ditched me, so yeah I'll come over and eat your food}

He received a reply a few seconds later.

{Pfffttt I am your hot date}

Sebastian shook his head at his phone.

{Don't flatter yourself}

Sebastian packed a bag and headed over to Hunter's place later on that evening after he finished up some stuff for work. The two hung out a lot to be two well established grown men with pretty busy lives. Mostly because Sebastian couldn't keep a boyfriend, and Hunter had just gotten out of a long term relationship that ended badly, so they just sort of had each other. It wasn't romantic in any way aside from the sometimes flirting, but every close friendship had that to a certain extent. It worked out well when Sebastian wasn't punching Hunter in the face.

Sebastian knocked on the door.

"It's open," Hunter shouted.

Sebastian came in and sat his bag down next to the sofa before sitting down himself. They chatted for a few minutes before Hunter decided to start cooking dinner, and Sebastian followed him into the kitchen to continue the conversation.

"So Seb aren't you running out of pain meds?" Hunter brought up casually.

"Well, yeah I am actually. I was wondering if you could help me out with that. The prescription you gave me didn't have any refills."

"Yeah man, no problem. I'll give you some more after you let me do the procedure. The filling itself will be a little deeper so you'll be sore for a few days after."

Sebastian grimaced. "That's not what I meant, Hunter."

"Well that's all you're getting Sebastian," Hunter stated firmly. "You've been on the antibiotics for long enough, the infection has had more than enough time to clear up. It's time to face this. We're doing it tomorrow actually."

"Bullshit!" Sebastian shouted. "You don't fucking tell me when we're doing this. I'll decide."

Hunter grinned in amusement at

Sebastian's outburst. He'd grown to expect this behavior from his friend. "Alright Sebastian, you decide. But don't come whining to me when your tooth hurts because you're out of meds. Oh, and eventually the abscess will come back too, and when you finally decide you're over all of this unnecessary bullshit you're putting yourself through I'll need to drain the damn thing AGAIN."

Sebastian could feel his face heating up, from anger or embarrassment he wasn't sure.

Hunter continued speaking, but this time his voice softened. "You don't need to wait any longer, Sebastian. There's no sense in dragging this out. The time it will take for me to fix it won't last long, it's temporary. Then it's over and you don't need to worry about it anymore. What is the point of this? Honestly Sebastian I want to know."

Sebastian didn't know what to say, he honestly couldn't think of a legitimate reason to put this off. He was just scared. "This is all easy for you to say considering you aren't the one who's getting their fucking face drilled in."

"Why do you think it's so bad Sebastian? I don't understand. This procedure is going to be painless."

"No it won't be," Sebastian argued.

"I wouldn't hurt you, Sebastian. The anesthetic will turn off the pain receptors in the area I'm working in, it's painless."

"The anesthetic? Like the stuff in the needle? Hunter it doesn't work on me," Sebastian said in a small voice.

Hunter put the food away and sat across from Sebastian. "It's time for you to talk about what happened Sebastian, I need to know."

Sebastian shook his head. "I can't."

"You can. Here, I picked something up for you." Hunter grabbed a brown paper bag from on top of the refrigerator and retrieved what he was looking for. "Here Seb, this is a Valium. I planned on giving this to you so you could sleep tonight but you can go ahead and take it now. It's going to calm you down and make you feel sleepy, but it will help you talk about what happened without getting really anxious."

Sebastian looked at the pill in Hunter's hand unsurely. "What if I don't want to talk about it?"

"I need you to, Sebastian. If you want me to help you I really do need to know what happened," Hunter responded. If he was being honest with himself he was also pretty damn curious what happened to Sebastian to make him so scared. He knew the gist of it but that wasn't enough to understand fully.

"Hunter... It's going to be hard. Even if I decided to tell you I don't know if the words will come out right, or if I can even get them to come out period."

"Just take this and see if it makes you feel any better. I really think it will help," Hunter said, sounding truthful.

Sebastian trusted him so he took the medicine. After about half an hour he definitely started to feel the effects. He could feel his heartbeat start to slow down and he felt really drowsy. "Hunter I feel tired," Sebastian murmured, rubbing at his eyes.

"Okay. Let's talk for like 5 minutes and I'll let you sleep," Hunter offered.

"No, I wanna sleep now," Sebastian argued childishly as he laid down on the couch and closed his eyes.

"You can close your eyes if that makes you feel better but you have to answer my questions, alright? Seb I need to know what happened when we were 15," Hunter spoke from the other end of the couch.

"Your bitch ass ratted me out to my mom," Sebastian said flatly.

"I remember that part, and in my defense it took a month of your whining for me to do that," Hunter said simply. "I thought I was doing the right thing."

Sebastian didn't feel panicked like he usually would whenever this topic came up. Apparently the medicine was doing something. So he just said what he was thinking instead of tiptoeing around it. "I get the gesture behind that Hunter, but I guess the whole shitty mom thing didn't occur to you then. Huh?" Sebastian didn't talk about his relationship with his mom much, Hunter only knew about it because he had been there through all of the family drama. They didn't have a good relationship to say the least.

Hunter was quiet and an awkward silence fell over the two. Well, Hunter felt awkward. Sebastian probably would have felt awkward too if he wasn't so drugged. "I didn't know then, I'm sorry," Hunter settled on saying after a few seconds.

"I don't care," Sebastian said simply. "It happened man, whatever. I don't blame you. I was angry at you at first but you couldn't have known what would happen."

Hunter couldn't help but feel guilty because he knew whatever happened with the dentist Sebastian had when he was 15 wasn't nice, but this wasn't about getting rid of his own guilt. He still needed to know what happened. "What did he do Sebastian?"

"Well I mean technically I guess he did the filling," Sebastian said through a laugh that came across as angry.

"And I'm guessing you felt it? Do you remember if he gave you any anesthetic, like to numb you?" Hunter inquired

"He did, I remember because he jabbed the damn needle into my mouth and it stung pretty badly, but it didn't work. I still felt it when he drilled into my tooth," Sebastian divulged. He was starting to feel kind of uncomfortable despite his slightly (or very, he honestly couldn't tell) drugged state.

Hunter clenched his teeth in anger. "That's such bullshit. That shouldn't have happened," he spat. "That's not how it's supposed to work. Sometimes the anesthetic doesn't work to its full effect, depending on the person or area you're working in, but it's not that hard to give the patient more. There's nothing wrong with you Sebastian, I promise there's a way to make it work. I know you don't have a reason to believe me yet but I promise I wouldn't start until you were completely numb."

Sebastian kept his eyes closed because for some reason that made it easier to talk about this. He didn't want to look at Hunter right now. This was embarrassing for whatever reason even though he knew damn well this wasn't his fault. "I don't know Hunter," he said reluctantly. "I just... I trust you but I don't know if I can do it again. You don't know what it was like to lay there and be forced to take it. I-I couldn't leave, they wouldn't let me. I tried to turn my head away but the- the assistant held my head in place and they used this thing that held my mouth open. Hunter... it hurt so bad and I felt so trapped. Please don't make me do it again. I can't," Sebastian rattled out. His breathing started to become less even but he wasn't having a panic attack.

Hunter frowned at Sebastian's words. "Thank you for telling me, I know that was hard. I think I have an idea of what triggers you now so I know to avoid doing certain things."

"Like drilling into my teeth when I can feel it? Yeah that's probably a good idea," Sebastian laughed.

Hunter rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant. Like last time when you thought I wasn't going to let you leave sent you over the edge, and that makes sense now." They were silent for a few seconds, Sebastian might have been falling asleep honestly. "But Sebastian I want you to know that it won't be like that. You won't feel a thing and I'll stop if you raise your hand, and I won't hold you down or force your mouth open. I'm really sorry that happened but it won't happen again, I need you to believe that."

"That's a lame ass comfort, Hunter."

"Well what do you want me to say, Sebastian?"

"I don't know," Sebastian sighed. "I want you to say something to make the fear go away, but I know you can't. You're just human and I honestly don't know what I want you to say, I don't think there's anything you can say. I just need you to understand. This is so fucking scary for me, to even think about. I'm pretty sure the drugs are the only reason I'm not having a panic attack right now, and even with them in my system I'm still scared and I still know I can't do it again. I know you don't get that Hunter because you've only ever had good experiences, but I need you to try to understand where I'm coming from."

"I can't say I fully understand Sebastian, but I get it. You've had a bad experience and that's all you've known, I don't expect you to shake that easily. I don't see how you can until I prove to you that it's painless. Unless..." Hunter trailed off for a second. "Sebastian I think I have an idea."

"What?" Sebastian asked skeptically.

"What if I proved to you that a filling is painless? I have an old one that's kind of bugging me that probably needs to be replaced, and you can watch and see how painless it is," Hunter suggested.

Sebastian opened his eyes and looked at Hunter. "That sounds like a bad idea."

"Why?"

"Giving yourself a filling, it sounds like a bad idea. You'll probably mess up."

That one received a laugh from Hunter. "Oh god, I'll give you a pass on that one because you're drugged. I didn't mean I'd do it Sebastian, I'll have Nick do it. Why on earth would I try to do a filling on myself?"

"Dunno. I was gonna ask you."

Hunter rolled his eyes.

"Wait why do you need a filling?" Sebastian wondered.

"All of the Peterbrooke chocolate probably," Hunter said sarcastically. "No but fillings need to be replaced every 7 or so years, they give out eventually even with good hygiene. It happens."

"That's shitty. Teeth are stupid," Sebastian commented.

"Kind of, but I'm not complaining. Teeth make me a lot of money."

"Shut up Hunter, I don't want to hear about that reverse tooth fairy shit you call a career," Sebastian shot back, but Hunter knew he was just being the asshole he normally was. He learned a long time ago not to take his friend too seriously or everything Sebastian said would offend him.

"Okay sasshole, go to sleep. I'll wake you up in the morning for our adventure."

"I'm still not letting you do the thing."

"We'll see about that tomorrow."

Sebastian slept very well thanks to the Valium, and the next morning Hunter woke him up with coffee.

"Sebastian get up, I made coffee. So either you get up and drink the coffee I so kindly made for you or I'm dumping it on your head, your choice."

"You're bluffing," Sebastian muttered.

Hunter proceeded to hold it over Sebastian's head and Sebastian jumped off of the couch half asleep in horror, and Hunter just stood there laughing his ass off.

"Good you're up, though I'm disappointed that you actually think that little of me. Like I would dump scalding hot coffee on you... also not the best way to start the morning by making you distrust me."

"Fucking hell Hunter what am I supposed to think when you hold coffee over my head like that?" Sebastian huffed as he pulled himself back onto the couch. "The day just started and I already hate you. Congratulations, that's your new personal record." He took the coffee from Hunter and got to starting his morning even though he wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. Unfortunately getting frightened half to death was a pretty effective wake up method.

"Whatever, it got you up. My goal is fulfilled. Hurry up now, Nick is waiting for us and I'm never late to my appointments."

"By all means you go, don't let me make you late."

"Nah fam, I need someone to hold my hand at the scary dentist," Hunter added in a mocking tone but apologized afterwards. "Wait I'm sorry, that's actually kind of harsh. But seriously, I want you to watch and overall just get an idea of a normal, boring dental visit."

Sebastian didn't say anything, he just stared at his coffee blankly. He could feel his heart pounding and his stomach was starting to turn violently. It took a few seconds for him to gather his thoughts and then he spoke up. "Hunter look, you should really just go without me. I get that you thought this was a good idea last night but it's not going to work."

Hunter frowned but quickly regained himself with a smirk. "Ah I see, alright what you need is just another miracle pill from the bag over here," Hunter spoke as he retrieved the Valium again.

Sebastian thought about it for a second. He was reluctant but figured it was the better option. It seemed to take the edge off at the very least last night. "I guess it won't hurt but you know this isn't going to cure me. Last night I got to go to sleep after I took this," Sebastian reminded, but he accepted the medicine nonetheless and started getting dressed and stuff. He was feeling the drowsiness set in by the time they left but the calming effect seemed to be minimal.

"You look sleepy," Hunter chirped as he buckled up in the car. "You gonna fall asleep on me? I suppose that's better than vomiting everywhere like a defensive squid."

That one got a small nose laugh out of Sebastian. "No I'm saving that part for later."

"God please don't," Hunter warned. "I'm a doctor, not a mother."

"Pfftt, you might as well be a mother with how you've been treating me lately. Besides, you're not a real doctor. If someone collapsed in a restaurant what would you do? Scold them for not flossing?"

"We spend the first year of dental school shadowing at a hospital. I saw a woman give birth." Hunter stared straight ahead as he drove in deep thought. "This won't be bad you know. You'll be okay."

Sebastian stared out the window with his head pressed against the glass. "I still haven't agreed to let you do the thing Hunter."

"Yeah but you know I always get my way. Besides, it's not going to get any easier tomorrow, or the next day, or next week. Or ever."

Sebastian grimaced. "Yeah but today doesn't seem very appealing either. I won't even let myself think about the possibility which in retrospect isn't a very healthy way to deal with anything. So basically I'm probably going to puke on you or punch you in the face later, it's a coin toss."

Hunter looked deep in thought for a moment. "Well if you hit me that will hurt, but if you puke on me then I have to clean it up. Hmmmm, I think I'll take the punch honestly, if I know it's coming I can counter strike."

Sebastian found it amusing that Hunter actually thought about the question. "If you're really nice to me maybe I'll make a conscious effort not to do either," Sebastian mused. He ended up closing his eyes for a few minutes on the ride over there, but he wasn't actually asleep so he felt when the car stopped and he opened his eyes back up. Sebastian sat up and rubbed at his eyes. "Hunter I need a minute," he mumbled.

"You know I'm always nice to you, and you also know I'm gentle when I'm working." Hunter smiled comfortingly at Sebastian. When he parked the car he let his friend have his moment. "Do you feel sick or nervous? We can wait outside and calm down first."

Sebastian leaned over and put his face in his hands for a moment. "I feel lightheaded and sick. I'm just a little overwhelmed but it will pass in a minute. Also I'm just a little worried that I'll faint if I stand up right now. I started thinking about things that I don't want to think about."

"Well don't faint then," Hunter comforted lamely. He patted Sebastian's back and got out of the car himself. He came around and opened his friend's door. "Hey, all you have to do is sit with me and be a friend. We're not making you do anything."

"Wow Hunter thanks I'm cured now," Sebastian said with obvious sarcasm. He took a moment to calm himself back down and sat up again. Sebastian felt better but now he just didn't want to go in, so he just kind of sat there for as long as he could get away with it.

Just then Nick came strolling out of the office, he'd been in there waiting for them. He had a key to the office because he worked with Hunter. "Hey guys, is everything okay?"

Hunter looked up from patting Sebastian's shoulder to Nick approaching. "No, everything is not okay sadly. Sebastian is not okay, he's having a hard time right now. Help me get him inside."

"No Hunter I'm fine, I feel fine now," Sebastian swatted him away in embarrassment. "I can walk. I'm mildly irritated and sleepy, not crippled," he murmured as he got out of the car. Nick raised his eyebrows at Hunter in question but didn't say anything.

"Sleepy is good, irritated we can work on. Nick tell him that one joke you know." Hunter babbled.

"Hey Sebastian what do you call a snobbish criminal walking down the stairs?"

"What Nick?" Sebastian asked tiredly.

"A condescending con descending."

Sebastian only rolled his eyes in response.

Nick cleared his throat awkwardly as they walked inside. "Well Hunter I feel like I should be informing you on how this works, but it'd be concerning if you didn't already know so let's just do this thing. Are you going to be okay watching this Sebastian? You need to tell someone if you start to feel sick or lightheaded."

"I'll be fine," Sebastian said as he followed them down the hall, but he was actually starting to feel sick. The only thing that was really keeping him together was the piece of mind that Hunter was enduring this right now and not him.

Hunter grinned at Nick as they walked down the hall. "Yeah, I know how fillings work. You hit the teeth with little hammers till they're better, right? No? I've been doing it wrong for years I guess," he spoke sarcastically. Hunter sat down right away once they were in the room. "Sebastian, come sit over here near my feet. Then you don't have to see everything."

"Well fortunately this isn't the Stone Age so it's a bit more advanced than that but you're close," Nick supplied. He washed his hands while Sebastian got situated.

Sebastian pulled up a chair and sat at Hunter's feet so he'd be out of the way and be a comfortable enough distance away from the action. "Seriously how are you okay? Nothing's started yet and I might sympathy puke for you," Sebastian commented, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Nick walked back over as he pulled on a pair of gloves. "Okay Hunter let's take a look. Which one did you say it was?"

Hunter laughed at Sebastian, "what is it today with you and puking? Seriously, don't puke, it's fine. Oh wait hold on." Hunter got up before Nick could harass him and rummaged through a cabinet near the window. He gave Sebastian some huge headphones to wear and sat down again. "Okay there we go, that's better, so anyway, yeah it's number 5 on the top there."

Sebastian ignored Hunter's question and accepted the headphones, silently grateful.

"Are you sure it's on the top? I forget," Nick said sarcastically. He adjusted himself and threw on a mask. "That's like saying yeah my foot, you know attached to my leg there. Okay I'll stop being an asshole now, open up Hunter."

"Shithead," Hunter mumbled. He opened his mouth and kept an eye on Sebastian while Nick looked at his teeth.

Nick looked around a little and didn't find anything interesting other than what Hunter mentioned. "Okay yeah I get what you were saying, it looks like the composite shrunk a little so that would explain why it was bugging you. No biggie." He let Hunter close his mouth and grabbed some topical lidocaine. "Okay here," Nick said, sticking the q-tip in his mouth.

Sebastian felt mildly uncomfortable watching this so he stared at the wall.

"Okay Sebastian so all I've done so far is topically numb the area where I'm going to inject the anesthetic. It's not necessary but it makes the injection virtually painless, it'll just be sort of like a pressure and maybe a pinch but Hunter will tell you that," Nick explained for Hunter.

"And let me tell you it tastes terrible. Nick you used the flavorless, gross. At least give me medicinal banana. Wait no, I take it back, medicinal banana would be vomit worthy." Hunter glanced at Sebastian. "If you want us to just not talk about it tell us."

"No you're fine. I don't know if it's helping, maybe. I don't know. I just feel weird. I feel like it's awkward that I'm watching this," Sebastian tried to explain.

"We're out of the pina colada flavor which tastes decent at least, you need to order more. It's your fault," Nick teased.

"I'm not the only one who works here," Hunter argued but couldn't say too much once Nick's hand was in his mouth. The rest was unintelligible as Nick picked up the syringe and Hunter took a deep breath in through his nose and shut his eyes.

"Okay Sebastian if you're squeamish just look away for this part, but you probably can't see what I'm doing anyway. I'm going to inject magical liquids into Hunter now. That... that sounded wrong. Could have worded that better. Um. Okay Hunter open up again," he said taking out the q-tip and picking up the syringe. Nick pulled back Hunter's cheek. "You're fine. Just some pressure. The worst part was the gross tasting numbing gel." When he had the syringe in the correct spot he started injecting the lidocaine slowly so it didn't sting. It didn't take any longer than 30 seconds and then he took the syringe out of Hunter's mouth. "That's it. Here let me rinse the rest out. So many pleasant tastes today, oh joy."

Sebastian watched discreetly as Nick did his thing. Hunter looked fine, maybe a little uncomfortable but so far nothing was freaking Sebastian out.

Hunter definitely felt the needle when Nick injected him, but he knew he had to keep his poker face strong for Sebastian watching. "Simple as that, ew nasty, but still my lip feels tingly."

"Okay, I'll give that a few minutes to work. I'm gonna go order some stuff really quick, it's probably important that we don't run out of lidocaine. I'll be back in like 10 minutes." Nick sat Hunter's chair up for the time being and left the room.

Sebastian was just kind of sitting there twiddling his thumbs awkwardly. "I still feel sleepy," he mumbled. "So how do you feel? I feel like I need to ask that even though you're probably fine, which is really strange by the way. Like... normal people think hey my tooth kind of hurts I should get that checked out, and then there's me and I'm like well the pain isn't crippling yet so let's just wait until this gets as absolutely terrible as I can stand and then freak out when I inevitably have to deal with it. Yeah. Seems reasonable."

"Don't worry, that's why I'm here," Hunter said nonchalantly as he made some weird faces out of reflex. "To make you get this done in a firm but non threatening way. Also secretly, the topical Nick used must be expired because I felt that." Hunter leaned out of the chair and reached in a nearby drawer producing a hidden jar. "But jokes on him, I have one pina colada left."

"That's... slightly concerning. You should probably throw that one out," Sebastian supplied. "Well hopefully the anesthetic isn't expired too. That wouldn't be pleasant. Hm." Sebastian stood up and started looking around the room, half in mild curiosity and half in sheer boredom. He opened a cabinet and found something really strange and pulled it out. "Hunter what the fuck and why?" Sebastian said, holding up one of those creepy ass stuffed bears with teeth.

"The anesthetic is fine, I check the dates before I used anything. A habit my cohort should get into," he mumbled. "Ugh, put that back, it's not for you it's for kids to teach them about teeth. Though if you need a snuggle buddy you could just say so," Hunter smirked.

Sebastian looked unsettled as he shoved the bear back in the cabinet of shame. "I'll pass actually," he said, sitting back down in his seat.

Nick walked back in a few minutes later. "Okay Hunter, does your face feel weird?" he asked as he scrubbed back in and walked back over to him.

"You mean weirder than usual?" Hunter smiled as Nick ignored his cheekiness and leaned him back. "Yeah, I'm good."

Nick rolled his eyes and leaned Hunter's chair back. "Okay. Yeah your face looks weirder than usual too, it's working. I'm going to check to make sure but you're probably fine." He flipped on the light and moved it over Hunter's mouth. "Basically Sebastian what I'm doing now is just checking to make sure he's numb. Again it's not necessary but it's a nice thing to do and I always like to make sure before I start. Open up Hunter."

"Um okay first of all you should always check Nick, it's totally necessary, and second, I've had trouble getting numb in the past so I'll tell you firsthand to always check anyway."

Nick shook his head. "It isn't always necessary. Like if the patient's face is lopsided it's pretty obvious that they're numb, but everyone's different when it comes to approaching this stuff. It's even less necessary if the restoration is really small, technically if it's really far away from the nerve it wouldn't hurt anyway," he argued. "But yes in your case I'm going to check. Can I do that now Hunter? Or do you want to talk some more?"

Hunter scowled at Nick, he knew his friend was wrong and it wasn't a good idea to put those thoughts in Sebastian's head, but he held his tongue and decided he would put Sebastian at ease later when they were alone. "Go for it." Hunter felt Nick mess with his tooth a little.

Sebastian looked uncomfortable and just stared blankly at his hands.

When Hunter opened his mouth Nick scratched at his tooth with the explorer and did a few other things to see if he was numb. "Do you feel any of that Hunter?"

"I mean, I can sort of feel it, but also not really. I'm not going to stop you if you want to start but I'll definitely tell you in a while if I feel pain you know?" Hunter could see Sebastian didn't think he was sane at this point. "I'll be okay, go ahead and start and we'll see."

"Do you mean you feel a slight pressure or does it hurt? You're going to feel a little bit of pressure but if you feel like it hurts a little it isn't a problem to give you a little more just to be safe. But if you aren't completely numb at most it will sting a little, then you'll raise your hand and I'll stop and give you more. It's your choice though."

Sebastian furrowed his brows in confusion and concern. "Hunter just let him give you a little bit more."

Hunter pondered for a moment and glanced at Sebastian. "Alright Seb, I'll do it to calm you, I don't mind. Yeah Nick, go ahead and stab me again."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Don't be so melodramatic. You're already numb, you probably won't even feel this."

"I'm calm as shit man what do you mean? I just want to leave so I can take a damn nap because it's not socially acceptable to curl up on the floor like a cat," Sebastian murmured, rubbing his eyes.

Nick picked up another syringe. "Okay open again Hunter, you know how this works."

Hunter opened his mouth again and let Nick give him the second shot, this time he felt nothing as he was mostly numb. "Yeah, that outta do it then." He couldn't feel his tongue anymore.

Nick gave Hunter the second injection and let him close his mouth again. "Alright then let's do this thing. Sebastian you might want to put on the headphones now. Any requests before we start Hunter or are you good?"

"I'm good," Hunter replied and put in his own headphones for fun. "Sebastian just wants to sleep, he might nod off with his music on, right buddy?"

Sebastian flipped on his music but didn't move the headphones to cover his ears yet. "Yeah I'm fine, I'll probably end up shutting my eyes for a minute."

"Okay then," Nick said, picking up a cotton roll and sticking it in Hunter's mouth.

Sebastian put on the headphones now and propped his elbow up on the armrest of his chair and let his head sort of rest. Hunter seemed fine and honestly if there was anything to be afraid of he would have shown it by now. The filling seemed to go smoothly and Hunter didn't show any signs of being in pain. He actually seemed bored. It took about 15 minutes from start to finish and sooner than Sebastian would have liked they were done.

Hunter sat up and rinsed out his mouth with the cup Nick gave him. "Feels good, thanks Nick, I owe you lunch now." He turned to Sebastian after standing up and gave him a crooked smile. "So see, that was painless and simple. Are you ready to get this over with?"

After Nick left the room Sebastian quickly stood up and lingered in the doorway. "No," he said quickly. "Let's just leave Hunter, I told you I wasn't going to do it today. We'll come back another day."

"Sebastian," Hunter sighed. "Let's just take it easy. We'll go one step at a time, right now why don't we go and sit down for a little while and just relax, and then when you're in a better mood I can give you something to calm you down some more."

"I'm not doing it today, I've already made up my mind. I get that you were fine but it's different for me and I just can't. We really need to leave Hunter, I don't want to be here."

"No Sebastian, it's not different, you'll be treated even better than I was I promise, and you won't feel any pain just as I didn't. Seriously, you need this done, even with antibiotics and me draining your abscess numerous times eventually your tooth will up and die and then you can't keep it, it won't even be a matter of choice at that point. You'll collapse from an infection and the doctors at the hospital won't let you say no. They'll hold you down, drug you up, and call someone like me to take care of it," Hunter fumed harshly. He took a step back towards the sink to give Sebastian and himself some space and calm down. "Look, I'm trying to help and give you the chance to do this before anything like that happens, and I know you don't understand what I mean by that, but I will literally let you go as slow as you want. If you need a break to watch and entire episode of Doctor Who I'll let you have it."

Sebastian swallowed hard and crossed his arms, at first he looked like he could have been angry but the expression on his face was far from that. He looked absolutely terrified. Sebastian knew damn well Hunter was right, he could get angry and scream about how Hunter didn't understand but none of that mattered. He knew that once he pushed aside all of the denial he'd been using as a false comfort. He blinked back tears as he choked out his next statement.

"Hunter, I'm so scared."

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 **A/N: I'm a giant flaming asshole because I'm going to cut it off there for now or else this chapter would be long as shit. Buuuut the next part is already finish so I'll post it in a week from now (or maybe earlier if I'm feeling nice). What do you guys think so far? I'm a review hungry monster and I might update earlier if I'm fed ;)**

 **It must get exhausting reading me beg for reviews in every author's note. Feel free to tell me to shut the fuck up in a review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I Think You're My Best Friend**

 **A/N: You guys honestly I dove a little too deep into my own fears when writing this and I might have almost fainted trying to write some of this shit. No joke. I got really deep into what personally freaks me out so this chapter will probably be kind of stomach turn-y if you're squeamish when it comes to this stuff. I can't tell if writing this was therapeutic or just freaked me out more... hm... I'd say the latter. So basically I almost died trying to write this, you're welcome.**

 **Also Megan helped me write this part too, thanks brooooo you da best.**

 **Also I don't know what a root canal feels like (thank fucking god because trying to sit through that shit would kill me) but I did a little research and hopefully I wrote it as realistically as possible.**

* * *

 _"Hunter, I'm so scared."_

Hunter looked sympathetically towards his friend. "I know that, and I know this whole thing is scary and makes you feel trapped and it's too clinical in here, but let's look at the comforts of this. I'm your best friend and I would never hurt you or let anything I do hurt. There's plenty of things I can do to make this feel more casual and less clinical. There won't be any restraint on you to leave. Please just let me try and show you. Just try for me."

Sebastian looked conflicted. "Are you sure we can't wait just one more day? I don't feel like I'm ready. I just need a little more time to feel okay about this and mentally prepare myself," he tried to bargain, but honestly Sebastian knew he wouldn't feel any better about this no matter how long he put it off; it looked like Hunter knew that too because the expression on his face said he wasn't going to budge. "Okay, fine. Hypothetically saying I tried, what's the first thing you'd want me to do?"

"No, no more waiting, it only makes it worse. The first step in this would be for you to sit down in the treatment room and try to relax. I'll put some Netflix on for you and you can watch something for a little while. Maybe sit with some topical in your mouth for a few minutes, okay?"

Sebastian grimaced at 'treatment room' because it sounded too clinical and he rubbed the nape of his neck nervously. "Hunter but you know damn well one thing's going to lead to another, that's not all that's going to happen. I know what this will lead to and I hate it."

"You said first step," he reminded Sebastian. "First step is the hardest anyway. Just focus on getting through the first step and then we'll take small steps one at a time." Hunter held his arm out for Sebastian to follow him as he brushed past his friend through the door.

"I still hate this," Sebastian reminded under his breath, but he followed Hunter anyway. "Having TVs mounted to the ceiling doesn't seem very safe by the way. If it falls on my face I'm gonna be pissed."

"You say that like you've seen a TV fall from a ceiling before." Hunter sassed as they entered the room. "Sit down, we're going to pick a TV show and I'm going to take a look again." Hunter handed Sebastian an Xbox controller as he came in the room and busied himself with washing his hands.

Sebastian begrudgingly followed Hunter into the treatment room. He was starting to feel sick again and his heart felt like it was pounding really hard, but he sat down anyway and flipped through a few different shows on Netflix. He ended up turning on the Yellow Fever episode of Supernatural even though he had a feeling he wouldn't really be watching it. As expected he couldn't focus on it at all and his eyes just ended up following Hunter nervously. "I don't want to be here. I hate this and I feel like I'm going to puke and literally nothing has happened yet. The TV isn't even helping because I can't focus on anything but how scared I feel right now and I hate this so much," Sebastian rattled out anxiously. "I'm serious about the puking by the way, you might want to scoot a trashcan over here."

Hunter frowned at Sebastian's lack of trust as he watched him cautiously. "Here you go," he put a small trashcan in his lap. "Well your problem is you're picking episodes you've already seen and you're not focusing on something new to distract you." Hunter took the controller from his hands and scrolled through the shows until he found the new season of The Flash. "Here's some fresh episodes for you to watch. Please for the love of God watch them and just calm down for a little bit."

Sebastian frowned when Hunter took the remote from him and turned on The Flash. "This is stupid. I hate the guy they cast to play Barry. He looks like a noob and his acting is too over the top," he complained. "I can't calm down Hunter, distraction isn't working. You should really just let me leave because next I'm going to start crying and my crying face is super ugly and you really don't want to see that."

"Vampire Diaries it is," Hunter said as he took the remote again and changed the show. "Keep complaining and I'll change it to Project Runway." Hunter placed a bib on Sebastian and put some gloves on. "Everything is fine. You need to just trust me and ask questions if you have any. Right now I'm going to lean you back and look at the tooth again, okay? Just a mirror."

If Sebastian had been in a better mood he would have said something sarcastic but at this point he was just glaring at Hunter. His stomach turned when the chair was leaned back and he felt miserable and trapped. Hunter wasn't going to let him leave. He shut his eyes for a second, trying really hard to get a hold of himself so he didn't have a panic attack. "It's not like you're going to let me say no. You're going to make me do this no matter what I say."

"If you can get through letting me just look I'll give you a long break, alright?" Hunter offered. He picked up his mirror and held it over Sebastian's face. "Just look at the TV, okay? Look at all the hot attractive men I have placed before you. And FYI if you say no to something I want to do I'll respect that and back off a bit, okay? Now please open up a bit."

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Attractive men are the least of my worries right now." He kept his eyes glued on the TV and opened his mouth, this part didn't freak him out, he was just annoyed if anything.

Hunter smiled in satisfaction and went in with his mirror to look at the tooth, he turned away for a moment to compare to the X-rays, and returned with the pina colada jar and a long q-tip. He prepped it behind Sebastian's head and asked him to open again for him to look. "I want to check one more thing please." Once Sebastian opened Hunter placed the gel in the far back of his jaw in two spots. "I'm putting this in the typical area and in an area that usually works for people who can't seem to get numb, okay?

Sebastian kept looking at the TV in attempts of distancing himself from the situation. This part wasn't scary but if he thought about it too much he knew he'd freak himself out, and for both of their sakes he was making a conscious effort not to do that. Sebastian opened his mouth again when Hunter asked him to, but he did glance really quickly to see what he was doing but relaxed when he saw it was just a q-tip. Once they were both in place he shut his mouth and he could already feel the weird tingling sensation. Despite it being pina colada flavored he could still taste the gross underlying medicine taste, and he screwed up his face dramatically in displeasure because he couldn't complain to Hunter with this stuff in his mouth.

"Yep, that's how you know it's working. I know it tastes not so great, but it's better than the flavorless." Hunter stripped off his gloves to give Sebastian some peace of mind and turned up the TV. "We can watch until Damon is introduced and then we'll move onto another step."

Sebastian nodded and went back to watching the TV. He honestly tried to focus on it and relax but his mind wondered and he was starting to make himself feel sick again. The Valium didn't seem to be doing much at this point. Sebastian tried to say something but realized the words weren't coming out coherent and huffed in frustration before pulling out his phone. 'I'm okay right now but this isn't going to last. Once you start working it's going to freak me out regardless of how numb I am. I physically won't be able to stay calm Hunter' he wrote out.

Hunter hummed and leaned over towards Sebastian to read his text to him, leaning on the chair as he did so. "Don't worry about that, I'm going to give you something else to help relax you when you're ready."

Sebastian looked to Hunter with reluctant eyes. But as scared as he was he did trust that his friend had his best intentions in mind, so he nodded, satisfied with that answer for now. After about 5 minutes Sebastian got annoyed with the taste of the topical lidocaine. "Hunter can you take these out now? My mouth feels weird and it tastes bad," he complained best he could with the long q-tips in his mouth.

"I can do that," Hunter spoke as he pulled on a new pair of gloves. He took the q-tips and threw them in the trash. "Are you ready for the next step or do you want to wait a bit and have me give you more topical in a little while?"

Sebastian thought about it for a second. "Ugh, Hunter I know what comes next and there's no way it's not going to hurt. Needles always hurt. And you're going to do it twice," he groaned. "But it doesn't make sense to do it later because that means I just made you waste the numbing gel stuff."

"Again, I'll remind you were going at your pace, so I don't mind wasting the gel on you if it makes you feel better. Don't worry about inconveniencing me, you're the customer here, you're my client, think of it that way."

Sebastian didn't want to do this but logically didn't see the point in dragging it out, he wouldn't feel any better about this in a few minutes. "Just do it now I guess. It can't be any worse than that thing you did last time."

"This is true, last time I couldn't numb you even a little and this time the needle is way way smaller Seb, besides, I promise this stuff works, you won't feel pain, just the feeling of something there you know?" Hunter slid his stool to the counter behind the chair and prepped the needle he had ready from earlier. "Do you want the stuff I told you about to help you relax now? Or do you want to wait till you're ready to start the actual project?" Hunter decided to choose words that didn't sound triggering today.

"Project," Sebastian laughed. "Nice word choice. Makes me think of writing a book or crafts, not you drilling into my teeth... which is something I probably shouldn't say because I just freaked myself out a little. Yeah I could probably use a little extra help relaxing right now."

Hunter nodded his head quickly. "Yeah you probably could, and in retrospect we should have talked about this a few days ago but you need to be informed now, would you rather talk first or let me numb you excessively first?"

Sebastian's stomach turned. "That doesn't sound good, what do you mean Hunter?" he sighed. "I don't want to know yet. Just numb me before the stuff you used wears off."

"Excellent choice if I do say so myself, otherwise you might punch me in the face after all." Hunter put his glasses on and turned on the light above Sebastian's mouth. "This will only take about 30 seconds and then it's all over, no more pain forever, okay?" He smiled reassuringly before he pulled on his mask and reached for what he needed behind him.

"Well I don't want to punch you in the face right now but I suggest you don't plant the idea in my head. I mean it's a pretty good stress relief actually, well not for you but..." Sebastian joked. "Yep, so it's going to hurt. That's basically what you're saying. I mean I don't care because it's not that bad but this certainly isn't a pleasant experience. Wow I hate it here. Have I mentioned that yet today?" Sebastian was babbling because he was kind of nervous. "This is more stressful than jumping out of a fucking airplane. I'd much rather be doing that."

"It's not going to hurt dude, calm down." Hunter shushed. "I know you can't calm down, its a figure of speech. Open up." Hunter had his hand in Sebastian's mouth before he could change his mind and grabbed the syringe. "Don't move around now okay, stay as still as you can."

Sebastian felt his heart start pounding hard when Hunter held his mouth open. He shut his eyes nevertheless and tried to make this easier for himself. He felt the tiny pinch, and if it would have just been that it wouldn't have been a problem but he could feel the anesthetic going in and it stung. It started to freak him out and his breathing sped up, but after a few more seconds he couldn't really feel it anymore and relaxed.

Hunter saw Sebastian panicking and felt terrible for his friend but he had to finish what he started. "I'm sorry buddy, just hold on for a few more seconds." Hunter finished the first shot and pulled out. "Did it hurt or did you just panic? I did it in the normal spot but if you can still feel it in a few minutes I can give you the other dose."

Sebastian opened his eyes back up once Hunter was done. "It stung at first but I'm okay, it just freaked me out a little. Not your fault," he said nonchalantly. "But I know for a fact just that one isn't going to work. It was the same tooth that one time, it works a little bit but not all the way," Sebastian mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So what did you need to talk to me about?"

Hunter frowned a bit at Sebastian's explanation. "How about I make sure you're numb first and then we talk." Hunter prepped the second shot while Sebastian sat there. "Some people just need more, I'll give you a double dose."

"Yeah I guess that's not a bad idea either. I won't argue with you, you should definitely do that." When Hunter told him to Sebastian opened his mouth again. This time he only felt a little bit of pressure when Hunter did the injection, it didn't hurt. "I really hope it works this time because if it doesn't I'm just going to assume I'm immune and that means I'm some kind of metahuman or something."

"You're not immune Sebastian, there's a way to fix this I promise. This type of stuff doesn't have to be painful anymore." Hunter put the second needle away and smiled at Sebastian, "that should do it. But now we need to talk sadly." Hunter kept a calm face as he spoke. "I know you think a filling is all we need to do here but I have to inform you it's going to be a bit more invasive than that. You're all numb and you won't feel a thing no matter what, but I'll have to do this thing to save the tooth. Um, so how do I explain this... teeth have roots and we have to clean them out because of the infection..."

Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I don't understand what that means Hunter. So like a filling but deeper? What's the difference between that and a regular filling?" he thought for a second. "Wait you don't mean...?" The realization hit Sebastian like a ton of bricks and he felt like he was going to throw up. "Please don't tell me you mean a root canal Hunter because those are terrible and there's no fucking way they're painless. Everyone says they hurt."

"No no no calm down, they're not terrible and there's no way for you to know that anyway because you've never had one Seb. The pain receptors are turned off no matter what. You won't feel it, I swear to you," Hunter tried to reason.

Sebastian shook his head. "I want to leave. I can't do this. I can't do that Hunter, it's going to hurt. You said you wouldn't force me to do anything and there's no way I'll let you, I can't. I just- I can't. Please Hunter take me home and I swear I'll never complain or bug you about any of this stuff again." Sebastian was pretty effectively freaking himself out and at this point he was saying anything he could to get out of this, but even in the panic he knew it wasn't possible to just run away from this forever. Even if Hunter gave in and let him leave that wouldn't solve anything. He ranted out some more half-ass excuses and panicked some more before he started to feel really lightheaded and dizzy. "I feel like I'm going to faint," he murmured and laid himself back down before he actually did. "I don't feel good Hunter," he mumbled in defeat.

"Hey, Seb, take some deep breaths, you're hyperventilating man. You're going to be alright, I'm not going to let it hurt," Hunter spoke while he laid Sebastian back more and raised his legs. "I'm just making sure you don't faint, we're not starting anything, just calm down."

Sebastian laid there and allowed his body to gather up a little more strength so he didn't feel so lightheaded and weak. It only took a few minutes to feel relatively normal again. "I'm so pissed. I felt okay for like 2 minutes, like I could actually do this, and then you dropped that bomb on me. I sort of wish you didn't tell me that Hunter, I wouldn't have known the difference. Now I'm just scared out of my mind again," Sebastian said honestly. His heart was still pounding in his chest and he felt sick. "Hunter is there anything I could tell you to let me leave?"

"Dude, YOU'RE pissed? I'm just trying to do my job here, legally I have to keep you informed and get consent. I'm not going to jail even for you." Hunter argued with Sebastian's legs still held up. "And legally I can't keep you here but do you really want to die from infection when I can fix it right now while you're already numb?"

Sebastian laughed bitterly because now Hunter was pissing him off. "Wow," he laughed. "You know I get that I'm being kind of a stubborn ass right now but I'm trying, and you have no fucking right to snap at me like that. I NEVER asked for your help, I didn't want any of this." He snatched his legs away from Hunter and stood up. "You know I don't care what happens at this point, I'll fucking deal with all of this bullshit some other time but I won't stay here for another second. Fuck all of this, ugh!" Sebastian fumed. "You're right, legally you can't keep me here so let's fucking leave. I'm SO sorry if I ever led you to believe that I'm your responsibility, but I guess I'll clear it up for you now. I'm not!" Sebastian stormed out of the room with his fists balled up and literally trembling from anger.

"Sebastian! Sebastian dammit, come back here, dude I'm not going to grab you and trigger you that's not cool. What I meant was I wish I could have hid this from you but legally I can't man, I absolutely have to be truthful. Besides what message would it send for me to start betraying your trust and lying to you now," Hunter argued logically. He followed Sebastian down the hall now. "I swear to god I know I can't tackle you but I want to right now."

"Hunter for god's sake do you really think I'm that fragile? Fuck you," Sebastian spat. He was so angry because he hated how vulnerable he was to Hunter right now, he hated that he was viewing him as weak and fragile. "I've already made up my mind, I'm not doing this Hunter. I don't care what you say, I'm leaving."

"Well I was trying to be nice but if you're so tough..." Hunter came up behind Sebastian and wrapped his arms around him to lift him off his feet from behind. "You need to calm down and think rationally before I'll let you slip away like that." Hunter held onto his struggling angry friend. "Sebastian James Smythe, quit acting like a cat getting a bath, come in here and calm your shit."

"Hunter I swear to god!" Sebastian shouted when Hunter grabbed him from behind. He tried to get away or kick him but Hunter was a lot stronger than him and the attempts were useless. "Fuck you, argh! Hunter let me go you fucking asshole!" He thrashed around some more in anger but quickly wore himself out and realized Hunter wasn't easing up. Sebastian sighed. "Okay I'm calm, put me down," he said in defeat.

"You are so not calm," Hunter snorted comically. "You're just tired and giving up in the hopes I'll drop my guard and you can escape." He pushed Sebastian back into the room and shoved him into the chair. "Sit. Take a breath. Talk to me." Hunter shut the door and sat down in front of Sebastian. "You done? Or do I need to give you the calming stuff we talked about?"

"Hunter I can't stand you," Sebastian bit out angrily as Hunter pushed him into the chair. He refused to lay down for the time being and kept himself sitting on the edge. "No I'm not done. Why in the fuck do you think you're allowed to drag me around like a child? I swear to god Hunter I hate you so much right now," he continued to rant. After that one Sebastian took a breath and calmed himself a little. "What do you want me to say? I'm angry and honestly I don't know if I trust you right now."

"You seriously don't trust me any more than HIM? I've done nothing to warrant that, come on." Hunter crossed his arms in a huff and glared at Sebastian. "Look I don't want to fight about this, I'm sorry I didn't tell you what was what sooner but I didn't lie to you either."

"Hunter don't," Sebastian warned. "Don't even bring him up. He has nothing to do with this. I never compared you to him." Sebastian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look Hunter I didn't mean that, I still trust you but you need to calm the fuck down too if I'm even going to consider letting you do the thing."

Hunter stared at Sebastian with a dead pan expression. "Yeah, that's even if I can get you to cooperate. How about I go get what I need for the tray and you stay here and don't think about anything bad for three minutes. Deal?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes and gave Hunter a tired look. "Come on, have a little faith in me. Well... no actually you're probably right. But I'll stay here, okay? Scout's honor." When Hunter left Sebastian laid back only because the position he was in was uncomfortable. The chair was still leaned back a lot so he messed around with some buttons until he figured out how to sit it up a little bit. But unfortunately now that he wasn't angry he was starting to feel anxious again. So Sebastian decided to pull out his phone and do a little research.

Hunter returned a few minutes later with a covered tray which he set down on the counter. "Look at you, figuring things out all on your own. You could be a regular dental assistant at that rate." When he recieved no sassy response from his friend he grew concerned. "What's wrong now, what are you thinking?"

While Hunter was gone Sebastian read some stuff, nothing terrible but it was unsettling as hell. It didn't put him at ease at all. He effectively made himself feel even more sick. When Hunter came back in Sebastian didn't say anything, he just sat there and blankly stared at the TV but he wasn't paying attention. When Hunter asked what was wrong Sebastian just shrugged. "Hunter I don't know if I want you to do this. I don't know if I can handle it. W-what if you just pulled it out instead? That won't take as long and I won't feel it... I just don't think I can do this."

Hunter pursed his lips for a moment in thought. He had an idea of how to scare Sebastian into this but he didn't necessarily want to traumatize him more. "Okay Sebastian, as long as we're treating the problem, I can do that. I'll book you a follow up appointment for the implant to replace it, the screw might make your jaw sore for a week or two but I'll get you some pain meds for after we implant it in your jawbone..." Hunter trailed off as he turned his back to Sebastian. "I'll go prep an extraction tray instead. That is if you still think that's what you want to do instead." Hunter silently moved the trashcan into Sebastian's lap.

Sebastian gaped in horror at Hunter's explanation. "No, don't," he said quickly. "I-I don't want that either but this isn't- I can't. Hunter that's not right I know what you're doing and it's working you ass." Sebastian sat up quickly as a wave of nausea hit him and he grabbed the trashcan. Then he puked, as expected. "Ugh, you knew damn well that was going to happen you dick," Sebastian grunted after he was finished puking. "Are you satisfied now?"

Hunter smirked with his back turned to his friend and then put on a sympathetic face. "I don't want to scare you at all man, I'm just stating facts. I think the better option would be the endo treatment." He gave Sebastian a cup of water as a nice gesture and touched his shoulder reassuringly. "Come on, lay back now, I have something that will help."

Sebastian tiredly accepted the water and tried to drink some and rinse his mouth out, but the water embarrassingly dribbled out of the side of his mouth. "Ugh my face isn't working Hunter," Sebastian complained. He wiped the water off of his face and lied back down. "This stuff better work wonders because I'm really tired of puking and fainting over this shit."

"Dont worry it will," Hunter crossed his fingers that Sebastian was one of the 'good reaction' people for the stuff he was retrieving. He took two decent sized tanks out of a cupboard under the sink and put them behind the chair while attaching a mask to the hose. He put it over Sebastian's nose and turned on some oxygen. "Don't panic and don't fight me on this, you need it. It's just oxygen right now."

Sebastian was slightly confused when Hunter put a weird thing over his nose. "Hunter what is this?" He didn't try to take it off, he trusted Hunter enough.

"Like I said, right now it's oxygen but in a minute it will be that and a mixture of nitrous oxide a.k.a laughing gas, a.k.a. calm your shit drug." Hunter explained everything smoothly and in an easygoing manner for Sebastian. "Okay, I'm giving you the good stuff now, breathe it in. I'll get your headphones too but I need you to follow my instructions first."

"Calm your shit drug? Wow Hunter aren't you creative," Sebastian sassed. But the last thing Hunter said freaked him out a little. "Wait what do you mean follow your instructions? We're not starting yet are we because I'm not ready," Sebastian panicked a little. He was shaking and his heart was still racing, but then he started to breathe in the nitrous and it helped a little. It felt like tingles all over and he could feel it spread all over his body, and honestly even though he just started breathing it in he was starting to feel a little bit dazed. "What instructions Hunter?" Sebastian asked carefully.

"You'll be ready in a few minutes once you've breathed in the nitrous for a decent amount of time," Hunter assured. He slipped on gloves again. "I'm going to need you to open up so I can see if you're numb. I'm going to touch the bad tooth to see if you can feel it."

Sebastian grimaced. "Can we wait a few more minutes Hunter, please? Just to give the nitrous a little more time to work. I'm hardly feeling it yet," he tried to bargain. Sebastian was really worried that he'd be able to feel it, so he started messing around with the bad tooth with his tongue. It felt odd but it didn't hurt to mess with so that was sort of reassuring. "Okay wait, if I let you check now I want at least 15 more minutes to relax before I let you start."

"I'll give you the 15 if you promise to not delay further once you feel good." Hunter turned on the light and lowered the chair more. "I admire you using your leverage skills though. Now open please."

"Only if I feel okay in 15 minutes. This stuff better work," Sebastian grumbled. He opened his mouth and begrudgingly allowed Hunter to prod at his tooth. It felt weird and he could sort of feel movement, it couldn't quite be described as pressure even, but it definitely didn't hurt and that would have hurt without the anesthetic. "It doesn't hurt, I think we're good," Sebastian said once the tools were out of his mouth.

Hunter smiled happily. "Awe and look at you, you're all calm and shit. Proud of you." Hunter turned the light off so Sebastian wasn't blinded and turned the TV back on. "Okay you earned your extended break for being good for me." He reached under the chair and turned the gas up some more.

Sebastian rolled his eyes at the praise. "You're stupid," he complained lamely. He laid there and looked up at the TV, but The Vampire Diaries seemed boring. "Hunter where's the remote? I wanna watch Pokémon, and you're not allowed to make fun of me 'cause that's some good shit. It's basically anime, it's not a kid's show," Sebastian babbled. He felt weird and sort of floaty, and it was hard to focus on anything. He blinked a few times. "Hunter I feel weird," Sebastian announced, adjusting the thing on his nose a little.

Hunter took the controller off the counter and flipped through the search results to appease his loopy friend. "Pocket monsters at your service." Hunter slapped Sebastian's hand lightly when he tried to mess with the mask. "Don't fiddle with it dude, let it do its job."

"I was trying to fix it, stuuupid. It feels funny on my nose, hold on," Sebastian explained drunkenly. He messed with it a little before he was satisfied. "Okay I won't touch it now," he said, raising his hands in surrender. Sebastian laid there and watched the TV, his eyes following the characters around in amazement. "Pikachu's kinda an asshole, have you noticed that? He keeps electrocuting people and shit, that's rude," Sebastian wondered. At some point he stared at his hand for a solid 30 seconds, trying to figure it out. Then he started poking at his face and laughing, comparing one side to the other. "This is sooooo weird," he giggled. "I'm so happy, I didn't think it would work."

"You clearly underestimated my expertise. And your face is obviously numb since you're playing with it." Hunter turned on the wireless headphones and held them from Sebastian for a moment. "Now I'm going to let you watch Pokémon for the rest of your visit, but you have to listen to me for a minute now okay? I have to put this sheet over your tooth and you have to keep your mouth open for me the whole time. Will you be able to do that? It's going to be a while. I can give you something to bite on."

Sebastian didn't like that Hunter was being so serious. "Why so serious? Huh? Wait my break is over? It doesn't feel like 15 minutes have passed," Sebastian argued. He frowned. Even in his drugged state he knew he didn't like this. "When you say something to bite on you mean that thing that holds my mouth open, right? I don't like those Hunter," Sebastian said frowning.

"I know I know, it's not fun, but I'm asking what you'd prefer. Do you need the thing?"

"I don't want it but I might fall asleep. So I guess it will be fine as long as it doesn't hold my mouth open really wide, like to where it hurts," Sebastian tried to explain. He thought for a second before saying something else. "Hunter are you sure it's not going to hurt?"

"It's not like that Seb, what I have isn't like a prop it's more like a block that just sits there. It doesn't get bigger and it's to help you be more comfortable." Hunter fiddled with the light and pulled his mask on. "We're going to start now, I'm going to set you up to watch Pokémon okay." He put the headphones on over Sebastian's ears and connected them to the sound port for the TV. "And dont worry, it's not going to hurt, I numbed your mouth. Can you let me put the block in now?"

That seemed to be convincing enough for Sebastian. There was this nagging voice in the back of his head that said he should have been scared, but honestly he wasn't. He trusted Hunter and knew that he was going to be okay. "Okay Hunter, you can put it in. I trust you." He opened his mouth and let Hunter put in the weird block thing. It was actually comfortable, it wasn't holding his mouth open, it was more of a rest. Sebastian made a conscious effort not to pay attention to what Hunter was doing. His brain could only really focus on one thing at once in its current state so it wasn't that hard to zone out. Even with his best efforts though it was difficult to keep up with Pokémon. Everything was so much harder to comprehend and really the only coherent thought he could make was admiration of how pretty the colors on the TV were.

Hunter admired how calm his best friend was being about all this. He also kept in mind Sebastian hadn't felt or heard the drill yet. He put the sheet over Sebastian's tooth and secured it, and brought over his tray of tools as well. He silently pondered if it was okay to call Nick back in now for the extra help, but Sebastian seemed out of it so he decided it was a good idea.

Sebastian felt a sort of pressure when Hunter placed the rubber dam over his tooth, and his eyes wondered to Hunter to see what he was doing but he wasn't freaked out, just curious. Once the odd pressure stopped he relaxed and looked back to the TV.

Nick walked back in when Hunter gave him the go ahead. "You finally got him to agree? I'm impressed. Especially to a root canal? Damn." Nick quickly scrubbed in and pulled up a chair to assist Hunter. He glanced at the X-rays. "And this tooth has 4 roots? Fantastic. We're going to be here for a while."

Sebastian was trying really hard not to pay attention to what Hunter was doing and stay relaxed, but once he saw another person in his peripheral vision he did feel a little uncomfortable. It was Nick, fantastic. But he didn't sweat it too much because he trusted Hunter's judgment.

"Shush, don't scare him, he's still here you know," Hunter scolded. "This won't take that long, let him relax and watch cartoons while he's comfortably out of it." Hunter adjusted the light for a moment and asked Nick to hand him his tools. He started the drill away from Sebastian's face to make sure he wasn't going to move around first.

"He doesn't care Hunter. Like you said, he's out of it," Nick argued. "But no he's gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine Sebastian." He handed Hunter what he needed.

When Sebastian heard the high pitch squeal of the drill his eyes fluttered down to Hunter in silent concern but he didn't move around. He was mildly uncomfortable and he didn't like the sound, the noise on the TV wasn't loud enough to block it out.

"Yes well... look, he clearly is still aware because he's not watching TV anymore he's watching us." Hunter lightly slapped Nicks arm in a victorious manner. "Sebastian, it's okay, nothing's going to hurt, I'll turn up your headphones more so you can't hear, go back to watching your show okay," Hunter spoke calmly.

Nick rolled his eyes when Hunter slapped him on the arm. "Seriously Hunter are you 12?" he sighed. "Okay he's aware. We can't do anything about it unless you want to sedate him and last time I check that isn't a possibility because we don't have an anesthesiologist here. All we can do is make him comfortable Hunter."

Sebastian furrowed his brows but looked back to the TV, trying really hard not to focus on what was about to happen.

"Nick, cut it out," Hunter growled. "Stop saying shit like we can't do anything about it. Yes we can, it's our job to make our patients feel safe and comfortable. And if you knew what had happened to him you'd be a little more concerned for his sanity right now," Hunter snapped back. He turned up the volume on Sebastian's headphones to block out the noise, and their argument so he didn't let Nick get in his head too. Hunter started the drill again and looked to Nick. "If he flinches out of reflex just kindly hold him still until I can safely stop, okay? Don't hold him down though."

Nick's face softened. "I'm sorry. You're right. I've got him."

Sebastian noticed the volume got louder and it was harder to hear what was going on, and then Hunter started the drill again. Sebastian knew it was happening because he could feel the pressure. He tensed up at first, scared that it was going to hurt. Thankfully it didn't, it felt closer to spraying water. So he was able to relax a little. At most it was kind of cold, and he silently hoped it wouldn't get any more uncomfortable than that. Sebastian shut his eyes and took a deep breath in through his nose, urging himself to relax and maybe if he was lucky fall asleep.

Hunter noticed Sebastian tense up and he glanced to Nick in case he jerked away too fast. Thankfully his friend forgot about most of his fear and became distracted by the TV again, at least that's what he assumed. Hunter didn't think Sebastian was aware of what they were doing at this point. Once he'd worked for a while he handed the drill back to Nick and started asking for files.

Unfortunately Sebastian wasn't able to fall asleep, he damn sure tried but consciously it was impossible to relax enough. This felt too uncomfortable. There were moments where he could zone out and almost forget but then he'd zone back in and remember what was going on. The deeper the drilling got the more uncomfortable it felt, and it went from more of a spraying sensation to an uncomfortable pressure and vibration. Physically he was able to keep his body relaxed enough so he didn't move or mess anything up but at one point something changed. It felt like Hunter stopped drilling and for a second Sebastian was hopeful that maybe the hard part was over, but he was wrong. Then the sensation changed to like a rasping feeling inside of his tooth, like he could feel something going in and out. It didn't hurt but it was really unsettling. He silently wished he'd fallen asleep earlier. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to relax but he was starting to tremble a little. Then at one point apparently he flinched or something because he felt someone hold his head still.

Nick was keeping a close eye an Sebastian to make sure he didn't move or flinch, and at one point Sebastian started to move a little so he gently held his head still. "Hey whoa Seb it's really important that you stay still."

Hunter was doing his job and working meticulously when he saw Sebastian getting fidgety and at one point Nick had to physically restrain Sebastian. Hunter stopped what he was doing and put his tools down. "Hey hey, let's take a break, don't hold his head anymore he's fine," Hunter warned. He moved Sebastian's headphones and started speaking to him. "Hey friend, are you okay? Can you give me a thumbs up or down? I just want to be sure we're not hurting you, so we stopped for a bit. Do you want a break?"

Sebastian felt guilty when they had to stop because he partly felt like he was being difficult, but honestly he appreciated the break. He gave Hunter a thumbs up because he couldn't speak, and nodded his head at the suggestion of a break. Sebastian was still shaking a little bit and his breathing was a little bit uneven, which in itself was frustrating because he didn't think he'd feel like this with the gas.

"Okay, I'm going to step out for a few minutes. Tell me when you're ready to start again," Nick said, feeling he should give the two their space.

"You're okay, it's alright to take this in steps, there's nothing weird about that," Hunter encouraged. "Just take it easy," he noticed Sebastian was shaking now. He pulled his mask down to talk to Sebastian. "I'm sorry Nick had to hold you there for a second, it was just to briefly give me a chance to stop. Do you want me to explain what's happening now so you don't worry?"

Sebastian shook his head at the question because he didn't want to know what was going on, he didn't know what he wanted at this point but he certainly didn't want to know. He felt hopeless and scared and at this point he just started to shake harder and cry. He didn't want to do this anymore but he knew stopping wasn't an option.

"No no no, don't cry Sebastian, it's alright, nothing scary is happening and you're numb and you're in a comfy chair watching TV and we're just spraying water at your teeth that's all. The gas is making you feel relaxed and... hang on, oh wait I see what's happening, moving around a little must have made the mask move off your nose, I'll fix it hang on." Hunter took the mask off an adjusted it a bit before setting it back on Sebastian's face. "There, now you should feel better again because it's not leaking out. I'm going to call Nick back in and we'll give you five more minutes to feel nice again."

Sebastian just shook his head and cried harder. It wasn't like that, it didn't feel anything like that and he knew damn well Hunter wasn't being completely honest. He didn't understand how scary this was for him, if he understood he wouldn't be putting him through this. But then Hunter adjusted the weird thing on his nose and he felt the nitrous hit him again. It started spreading through his body like little tingles just like earlier and it smelled like vanilla. It made his head fuzzy again and he visibly relaxed and stopped crying. He gave Hunter a thumbs up to let him know he felt okay and he shut his eyes. He felt really tired again and he was able to relax and doze off. At some point Hunter said something and put the headphones back over his ears. Then they started working again, but this time it didn't freak him out because he realized it didn't hurt. It was uncomfortable but it wasn't causing him any pain, and once the nitrous was back in his system he felt relaxed enough to find comfort in that and he fell asleep.

Hunter internally sighed in relief as Sebastian stopped crying and relaxed again. He couldnt handle being the reason his friend was so upset. Hunter watched as he closed his eyes again and he called Nick back in. "The nitrous came off man that's why he was so aware. We can start again." Hunter took the headphones and put them on Sebastian's head after warning him they were starting again. He seemed to be asleep at this point.

"Well he looks like he's okay now Hunter, but I'll keep a close eye on him to make sure. He looks asleep though, I think the rest of this will go smoothly," Nick reassured. His overall attitude softened once he realized how scared Sebastian was and how much Hunter cared. He didn't say anything but his friend seemed pretty tore up when Sebastian initially started freaking out. "Alright, let's finish this so we can get him out of here," Nick said gently, handing Hunter what he needed.

The rest of the procedure went smoothly for Sebastian with Nick keeping a close eye on him and made sure the mask stayed in place.

Soon Hunter was sealing the temporary crown in place. Once he was satisfied with his work he took off the rubber dam and flushed Sebastian's system with oxygen. He also took the bite block thing out of Sebastian's mouth.

Nick apologized for acting snappy earlier and then left.

"Alright Sebastian, wake up bud. You're all done." Hunter shook him lightly after sitting the chair up.

Sebastian blinked a few times, trying to remember where he was. The nitrous wore off pretty quickly and he was brought back to reality. "Oh, I fell asleep," he remembered.

"You did, but it's okay. You did it Sebastian, it's over. You never have to do that again. I'm so proud of you," Hunter spoke as he cleaned up.

"This feels weird," Sebastian remarked, messing around with his tooth a little with his tongue. "It's weird to have something there. I'm so used to having a broken disgusting tooth there. Gross. It's so odd that it feels normal now."

Hunter laughed. "Damn sure took enough effort to get you here, huh? You've gotta be relieved that it's over with and you don't have to worry about losing your tooth anymore."

"I am," Sebastian admitted.

Hunter grinned in satisfaction as he took the mask off of Sebastian's nose. "You have a temporary crown on the tooth right now but in a week or so I'll put a permanent one on there for you. That will last you a really long time if not forever. You have good hygiene and you don't smoke or anything, so I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I have to come back?" Sebastian groaned.

"If you don't want the root canal you just had to fail then yes. The temporary crown isn't meant to last forever, hints the word temporary," Hunter countered. "You also have those two other cavities I need to fix. That's nothing compared to what you just did. I'm letting you leave now because you've been through more than enough."

Sebastian looked generally unhappy with that news, no shock there. "Hunter but the other thingy things don't hurt."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "Oh alright then, never mind. I guess we'll just wait until you need another root canal, right? Because why fix them when they're a small easy fix."

"Ugh, okay Hunter you win. I get it, I'm being stupid. Forgive me but this isn't my favorite place to be."

"Sebastian I know you don't like it here, nobody does. I'm sorry you still have a little more to go through but I promise it will be easy compared to this," Hunter reassured. "The next appointment is the last hard-ish thing you have to do and then it's just coming back every six months for a cleaning."

Sebastian pouted. "But Hunter I did the thing."

Hunter ruffled Sebastian's hair fondly, to which Sebastian smacked his hand away. "I know you did the thing, and you've almost accomplished a healthy smile. Just a little ways to go. But I swear to god I'm not fighting with you anymore. I'm a hair away from throwing your ass to the wolves."

"First of all never say 'healthy smile' again because you sound like one of those cheesy ass commercials. Second of all you know you'd never give up on me Hunter, you looooove me too much."

"That's questionable. I don't know why I put up with you Sebastian."

"Neither do I honestly. If I were you I probably would have murdered me by now."

* * *

 **A/N: Hunter is obviously kidding at the end there if you haven't caught onto Huntbastain's weird ass friendship by now. Also yeah fuck it I'll write one more chapter. It probably won't be as dramatic and angsty as this one but I'll think of some way to make it interesting.**

 **Oh and you should totally review because you loooove me.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I Think You're My Best Friend**

 **A/N: Hi all! So in light of a racist orange becoming the next president of the United States, I'm going to be nice and post all of this at once instead of splitting it into 2 parts like I normally would with a chapter this long. I hope you enjoy and I'll talk to you at the end.  
**

* * *

"Sebastian, remember that thing I said about throwing your ass to the wolves? Well I lied, I'm not letting you run away from the last little bit of this. Now get your shit together, come on it's not bad."

"Hunter, listen to me you fucking bone head. I can't do it today. I missed a lot of work when the infection in my face was trying to kill me and I'm behind, I have shit I need to do. I'll do it on my next day off, I swear," Sebastian said exasperatedly.

Hunter crossed his arms. "I don't believe you," he challenged.

"Do you want to call my boss, Hunter?" Sebastian said with an eye roll.

"Sure. You know I could probably get you the day off. Hand me your phone," Hunter said, holding out his hand.

Sebastian looked skeptically at his friend. "No dude, I don't need the day off and my boss definitely doesn't need to know about any of this. Stop it."

Hunter gave Sebastian a stern look, not looking convinced in the slightest. "Then admit you're lying to me. I know you are."

"How do you figure?"

"Because it's Labor Day you dumb fuck."

"Some people work on Labor Day," Sebastian argued.

"Sebastian it literally says in your phone calendar that you have today off, don't try me," Hunter said seriously.

Sebastian furrowed his brows. "Wait how do you know that?"

"Well for one you just admitted it, but for the record I used your thumb on the Touch ID when you were sleeping and unlocked it."

Sebastian gaped. "Hunter! That's creepy."

"Don't worry Sebastian, I didn't look at any of your dirty texts."

Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "If you look through my texts all you're going to find is me complaining about how much I hate you."

"As if I didn't already know that."

Sebastian realized that this lie wasn't going to work, so he went to plan B and pulled whatever acting skills he had out of his ass. In order to make himself cry he had to channel real emotion, so this wasn't completely acting, but for the most part it was. So he thought about how much he didn't want to do this and channeled the real fear and hatred he had for that place and started crying. He looked to Hunter hopelessly. "Hunter please, I can't do it today. I physically can't. I know that you have good intentions and you feel like I need to get this over with, but I know what I'm physically capable of and I can't do this today. I promise I'll do it soon, okay? Give me a little more time and I swear I won't fight you on it," he cried with open palms so his body language looked sincere.

Hunter studied Sebastian's face carefully, not quite sure if he believed him or not. This could have very well been Sebastian trying to get his way, but his emotion seemed genuine. Hunter believed him and decided he'd give Sebastian a little more time since the matter wasn't that urgent. He sighed. "Alright Sebastian, but I'm holding you to that promise. I'll be in touch soon to work out when we're going to finish this up. I'll leave you now."

Sebastian dried his tears. "Thanks Hunter, I really need this extra time."

Hunter kept a stern face but nodded silently. "Enjoy the rest of your evening Sebastian," he said before leaving. It was rare that he'd ever seen Sebastian cry, in all of the time he'd known him he could count the occurrences on one hand, it seemed a little fishy that he was so quick to break down like that. Either Sebastian really was a mess or Hunter had just been effectively manipulated.

After Hunter left Sebastian smirked to himself, satisfied with his performance. Over the course of the next few days he worked out a plan. It was ridiculous and probably one of the most extreme things he could do, but it was full proof.

* * *

Hunter was at Sebastian's house a few days later and they were watching The Arrow.

"This is a great show but the spin-off is such trash. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to give The Flash his own show? This kid is more of a Peter Parker than a Barry Allen, Barry should be older and not as dorky. Kid isn't fit to have the lead."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "You're such an ass Sebastian, I like him. You know I think you kind of look like the guy who plays Barry."

Sebastian shook his head. "I don't see the resemblance."

"Anyway Sebastian, I scheduled your appointment for Tuesday. You promised you wouldn't fight me and I expect you to come in like an adult at account of your own free will."

Sebastian had to hide his smirk. "I actually can't. I'm going to Mexico for a few weeks to cover a story. We're trying to expose the mistreatment of handicapped children in mental hospitals. They're putting them in cages and shit, it's messed up."

Hunter raised his brows in surprise. "That's actually really good that you're trying to expose that. I'm happy for you. When are you leaving?"

"My flight leaves tomorrow at noon."

"Sebastian I find it surprising that this conveniently came up now, around the time I wanted you to go to your appointment."

"Are you accusing me of lying Hunter? I can show you my ticket," Sebastian offered.

"No, I believe you. I just know you're a little shit and you got this story to avoid your appointment," Hunter said, shaking his head.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows innocently. "No Hunter, this is for the children."

"Uh-huh, keep telling yourself that buddy. So are you sure you don't wanna go ahead and get this over with tonight? We can go do it really quick."

Sebastian laughed. "For one Hunter it's midnight and I don't trust your motor skills, and two that pizza had garlic on it and I seriously doubt you want to be anywhere near my mouth right now."

Hunter grinned to himself. "You're right. I'll pass on your gross garlic breath."

* * *

After a long plane ride Sebastian found himself sitting in a rundown hotel room somewhere in Mexico. There were cigarette holes in the sheets and he'd already killed two roaches. It was less than luxurious and pretty nasty to say the least, but he needed to try to get some sleep. There were nicer areas and hotels in the country, obviously, but none close to the mental hospital he was trying to expose. So this was what he was stuck with.

He didn't have any WiFi so he was reading one of his favorite books and munching on a bag of Cheetos to pass the time, because Sebastian is clearly the embodiment of healthy living here.

He was chewing on the left side of his mouth because the tooth with the temporary crown was on the other side and he really didn't want to fuck it up. But apparently the universe was determined because while he was chewing he heard a crack that definitely wasn't the Cheeto and felt a pain in his upper jaw.

Sebastian's stomach dropped and he froze in shock, afraid to find out what just happened. He didn't move for a good 10 seconds before he swallowed down the rest of the Cheeto and investigated his tooth with his tongue. Thankfully it didn't feel like he fucked it up too bad, there weren't any pieces missing or anything like that, but it sure didn't feel good.

"Fuck! Seriously? A Cheeto? It couldn't at least be something that makes sense like a piece of ice or a popcorn kernel? How does this even happen dammit," he swore outwardly to himself. "Fuck my life." He got up and walked to the bathroom to investigate the damage. He flipped on the light and tried to look at his tooth in the mirror, but it was a top first molar in the back so no matter how he turned his head he couldn't get a good look. Maybe if he had some sort of small hand mirror, but there was no way he'd get a good look with his bare eyes.

Sebastian sighed, this definitely didn't feel good. He was assuming it was some sort of crack, it wasn't that big because he couldn't feel it so that made the most sense, especially since that tooth already had a cavity according to Hunter. He frustratedly brushed his teeth and got ready for bed. At first he was rather aggressively brushing his teeth, but then the initial anger melted into fear and sadness and he started crying. It was probably quite a sight, casually sobbing while he brushed his teeth. He went to bed soon after and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

"Sebastian are you okay?"

Sebastian blinked a few times in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on. "I um... what do you mean Hunter? I'm fine."

"No, you look like you're in pain. Are one of those cavities finally bugging you, huh?" Hunter asked smugly.

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. "No."

"I don't believe yooou," Hunter singsonged. "C'mon. Spill. What happened?"

"Nothing happened Hunter," Sebastian snapped.

"Alright, fine. Stick with that if it makes you feel better. I want you to come in for the fillings though. Like... now. Now is great actually. C'mon Sebastian let's do this thing," Hunter said, standing up and gesturing for Sebastian to do the same.

"What? Now? Hunter no."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

"That's a shitty reason," Hunter argued. "Your excuses suck." He got tired of waiting and tried to pull Sebastian off of the sofa, to which Sebastian swatted at his arm.

"Hunter I'm fucking serious, cut it out! I'm not doing this shit right now."

"Calm your shit Sebastian. I'll give you drugs when we get there, it'll be fine." Hunter successfully pulled Sebastian off of the sofa and started pushing him towards the door.

"Hunter!" Sebastian shouted. "I swear to god I'll punch you in the face again."

At that Hunter grabbed Sebastian and put him in an incapacitation hold easily. "Will you? Really?"

Sebastian groaned in annoyance, it was far too easy for Hunter to do this as he proved time and time again. "I wasn't serious," Sebastian countered. "Ugh, let me go Hunter. I'll walk with you, let's get this over with."

Hunter let Sebastian go. "Now there's a plan I like. Let's go."

The ride over to the office seemed to go by really quickly, almost too quickly. Sebastian couldn't help but note that something felt off about this, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it. It was like his sense of time was warped. "Hunter that was really quick."

"That's what you always say."

"No I mean I feel like we were literally just at your place and now we're here. I'm confused," Sebastian said seriously.

"Well, you're a little bit drunk Sebastian. It's fine, maybe it's taking the edge off."

Sebastian blinked a few times as they walked into the office. "Wait, you're not drunk too are you?" he wondered in horror.

"Of course not. I work tomorrow. I had a beer like 3 or 4 hours ago, I'm fine. You on the other hand... shit how much did you have to drink Seb?" he put his shoulder under his friend to helped him walk.

"I... I don't remember. This is weird, I feel weird," Sebastian worried.

"It's alright. I'll get you in here and get you started on the gas. You'll feel better. You're just anxious and sort of drunk." Hunter flipped on the lights and led Sebastian to the treatment room.

Sebastian strained himself trying to remember how much he'd drank, but he really didn't know. He didn't even remember drinking anything. The last thing he could remember was Hunter harassing him on the couch. He figured he just drank too much. That was the only way this made sense. He blinked a few times and realized they were already in the treatment room and Hunter was trying to get him to sit down. Then he suddenly remembered cracking his tooth in Mexico and grew worried. But he sat down anyway and almost immediately Hunter started lowering the chair.

"Hunter I don't feel good," Sebastian fretted as the chair reclined.

Hunter put a bib over him and flipped on the light. "You're fine Sebastian. Just relax. I'm going to look around really quick. Open up."

Sebastian heard the clink of Hunter picking tools up off the tray and his heart started to pound hard in his chest. He shook his head and refused to open his mouth.

Hunter sighed. "Sebastian what's wrong?"

"I don't want to do this Hunter," he excused lamely.

Hunter furrowed his brows. "If you're hiding something Sebastian I'm going to find out anyway. So with that in mind just tell me what's going on."

Sebastian blinked back tears threatening to spill over. "I um... Hunter I think I accidentally did something to my tooth. The one on the left side with the cavity, I think," he admitted.

"Let me look at it Seb, open up. Don't worry I'm not mad."

Sebastian didn't feel any less uneasy but he opened his mouth anyway. When he did Hunter went in with the two tools and Sebastian felt him scratching at the tooth. He winched when he felt a shock of pain. "Ow!"

"Does that hurt? I'm sorry Sebastian, hold on one second and I'll let you close your mouth." Sebastian watched Hunter closely and he saw worry flash across his face, which inherently made him start to panic.

"Hunter what is it?" Sebastian asked the second the tools were out of his mouth.

Hunter looked like he was at a loss for words and struggled to explain the news. "Sebastian... you cracked the tooth pretty badly. I'm sorry but the crack is down to the roots."

Sebastian felt like he was going to throw up. "What does that mean? God please don't tell me that means another root canal Hunter. Please, I can't do that again."

"No Sebastian... it's impossible to fix this. I can't do anything if the crack is down to the roots."

Sebastian gaped. "No Hunter. It can't be... it doesn't even hurt that much. I don't understand." He felt himself start to cry in worry. "You have to pull it don't you?"

Hunter nodded slowly.

"But last time you said if you did that you'd have to drill a hole into my jawbone for the implant. I can't lose one of my permanent teeth, no please. There has to be something else. Please tell me there's something else you can do Hunter."

"I'm sorry Sebastian but I can't. It won't be that bad. You won't have to worry about the implant for a while. Today we'll just pull it out and it won't take that long."

Sebastian laid there crying and hurt. Hunter seemed so insensitive to his worry and he couldn't figure out why. This didn't feel right. This couldn't be happening. "How can you say that, Hunter?"

"Because it's the facts, Sebastian. What do you want me to do, lie to you? This is your own fault for not getting that cavity fixed when you had the chance. I don't feel sorry for you."

Sebastian couldn't believe what Hunter was saying. "Fuck you, I don't want you to feel sorry for me but you could at least be sympathetic," he snapped. He tried to sit up but Hunter kept him in place.

"Sebastian stop. You can't leave until you let me pull it."

"But I don't want you to pull it!" Sebastian cried angrily.

"Fine Sebastian. Then just let it rot in your head," Hunter snapped back.

Sebastian couldn't believe his friend was being so mean. He was terrified and upset, this wasn't right. Hunter usually made him feel better and made this feel like less of a nightmare, but right now he was being completely insensitive and mean. "You're acting just like him!" Sebastian shouted. "You're no fucking different right now!" He blinked a few times in confusion at what he saw next. This wasn't Hunter. It literally wasn't Hunter. It was the dentist from his childhood and Sebastian sat up in horror. "Wait what the fuck! No, no, no, no. This isn't real." He tried to get up up but the dentist pushed him back down.

"It's no surprise that you're here again Sebastian."

"Fuck you!" Sebastian spat. He saw him pick up the forceps and shook his head in horror and tried to get up again, but this time Hunter helped hold him down. "Hunter what the fuck? I don't understand. This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real." He stopped fighting and shut his eyes tight in attempts to wake up from this nightmare. He could feel his mouth being pried open when he finally woke up.

* * *

Sebastian sat up in the bed in a cold sweat. He looked around the hotel room, making sure he wasn't still dreaming. When he realized he was safe he took a deep breath to calm himself. "Ugh, shit. Fuck my subconscious."

* * *

And that was that. Sebastian went to Mexico for 2 weeks, exposed shitheads, and made the world a better place or whatever. Hunter picked him up from the airport and they had a long chat on the way back about what happened in Mexico. "...and that's about it. Oh did I mention the part about breaking my face on a Cheeto?"

Hunter glanced to Sebastian for a second in surprise but quickly looked back to the road. "Wait are you serious?"

"No yeah I'm actually 100% serious. It hurts too. I'm not a very happy camper right now."

"Sebastian how in the hell did you break your tooth on a Cheeto? A healthy tooth wouldn't do that. Unless... ah I see. This is your bad karma for not getting those cavities fixed when you had the chance. That happened to the bigger one on #14 huh?"

"Yeeeeaaah... how'd you know?"

"It's like a went to school for an extra 4 years to be in expert in this stuff... hm..."

"Shut up you asshead. So are you going to fix it or what? This kind of sucks."

"I guess. Only because you asked so nicely though," Hunter said sarcastically. "Tomorrow's Monday so I'll just squeeze you in after my last patient. You're going to show up, right?"

"Yes Hunter, I'm trying to better myself or whatever. This hurts and I don't want to be in pain anymore, and I'm also hoping it's not bad yet. Maybe doing this willingly will give me a little good karma and this problem isn't anything serious. And I guess I've just gotten to the point where I can recognize this pain I'm putting myself through isn't logical."

"Wow Sebastian, look at you being logical and shit. Proud of you. Don't worry, this will be easier than what you did last time. It's been what, three weeks now? I think you've had a nice break. Is your temporary crown okay? It's not recommended that you keep it this long," Hunter wondered.

"I think it's fine. I haven't been chewing on that side of my mouth at all. I guess that's another reason I'm doing this. I don't trust the right side of my mouth with the temporary crown, and the left side is kind of... inadequate for chewing because it doesn't feel good..." Sebastian trailed off.

"You dumb fuck. It literally took you getting to the point where you can't eat at all to do this willingly."

"Pretty much. Food is where I draw the line. I need to be able to eat, and you really don't want to meet me when I'm hangry. You think I'm an asshole normally? Hungry Sebastian is the most likely to murder someone honestly."

"Good to know."

Hunter drove Sebastian back to his house and allowed him to settle back in and sleep.

* * *

Sebastian woke up the next morning around noon since he had the day off. He drank coffee and watched The Arrow, well tried to drink coffee anyway. His aching tooth was keeping him from enjoying the caffeine juice. Sebastian sighed in frustration and gave up. He took two Advil for his tooth and the caffeine withdrawal headache he knew he'd have later. The appointment wasn't until 4 so he didn't start getting ready until around 3:15. He showered last night so all he really had to do was get dressed and do something with his hair. Well, and brush his teeth of course which took about 10 minutes for good measure. By 3:30 he was heading out the door, he was still early which probably wasn't a good thing. On the drive over he was really distracted and pretty much zoned out the whole time, he wasn't quite sure how he made it there in one piece.

Sebastian sat in the parking lot indecisively for a few minutes when he got there, but ultimately he decided to adult and go inside so Hunter wouldn't have to drag him in later on. That would have been embarrassing.

He had a terrible sick feeling in his stomach the whole time and he felt really lightheaded. He checked himself in in somewhat of a daze, it was like he zoned into his own worry and that's all he could focus. He tried reading something on his phone or scrolling through his Twitter feed, but absolutely nothing was registering and all he was doing was scrolling pointlessly. He was definitely going to faint, or puke, or actually shit himself. Probably all three. He set his phone down in his lap and ended up staring at the floor. The foul too-clean smell of this place was going to make him throw up.

'Don't puke, don't puke.' He kept saying that over and over in his head until it didn't sound like English anymore. Apparently it was effective enough to keep him from puking, but not nearly effective enough to calm his nerves in the slightest.

The door to the back office opened and shut a few times. Each time his stomach lurched in anticipation, and honestly he wasn't sure what he was hoping for. Part of him was silently begging the universe for them not to call his name, but the anxiety was so bad at this point that at least if they called his name he wouldn't be sitting here soaking in his own worry. The second time a mom and her daughter walked out, they both looked happy and the mother was praising the kid for whatever reason. That seemed to sink his mood even further if that were possible, his own mother was never like that, especially when it came to this stuff. It was always a fight.

 _"Sebastian I swear to god if you don't come out of the bathroom RIGHT NOW I'm going to beat your ass. I'm wearing a belt today and I will use it," Sebastian's mother threatened dangerously._

 _A seven year old Sebastian kept his hand firmly on the lock so his mother couldn't get in. "No! Mommy I'm scared! Please don't make me!" he sobbed._

 _"Sebastian you're acting like a baby and you're really starting to piss me off. There are other kids that are waiting for their turn and you're making them wait longer."_

 _"Then tell them to go first! I'm not trying to stop them," Sebastian reasoned logically._

 _His mother huffed in frustration. "You have until the count of 3 to open the door or when you come out I'm going to beat your ass and you're still going to let them clean your teeth. One. Two. Th-"_

 _Sebastian hopelessly unlocked the door with a tear streaked face. "Mommy please I'm scared," he begged._

 _She irritatedly grabbed his wrist and drug him back as he cried._

 _"Mommy why don't you care?"_

 _"I don't want to hear it Sebastian, shut up."_

Sebastian was snapped out of his thoughts when the door opened again, and this time Hunter walked out. "Hey buddy, I'm sorry that I made you wait. My last session ran a little later than I expected. Are you okay? You look pale."

"I'm always pale. I don't get a lot of sun, skin cancer isn't my thing."

"I meant pale like you're about to faint pale, not pasty white person pale."

Sebastian stood up. "I might faint. If I'm lucky maybe I'll hit my head hard and get knocked out."

"That sounds like a trip to the ER so let's not do that." Hunter put an arm under Sebastian's shoulder just in case he fainted and led him back to the treatment room. "So how are you feeling Sebastian?"

"Like shit, thanks for asking."

"Alright, how's about you tone down the sarcasm a tad and tell me if there's anything I can do to help you feel better."

"You could shoot me in the face."

"One, that would be illegal even if I wanted to-"

"It's only illegal if you get caught," Sebastian interjected.

"Two, in retrospect getting shot in the face sounds a lot more unpleasant than a few fillings," Hunter finished. He grabbed gloves and a radiation apron as they walked into the room. "Alright well I need to take a quick X-ray to see if the damage to your tooth got worse. Go ahead and sit down for me."

"I don't know, getting shot in the face doesn't sound all that bad right now." Sebastian took a seat and Hunter put the heavy apron on him.

"You're not pregnant are you Sebastian?" Hunter joked as he picked up the bitewing.

"Yes," Sebastian said with a deadpan expression.

"That would explain all the puking last time. Open up Sebastian."

Sebastian grunted but opened his mouth and let Hunter put the bitewing in.

Hunter took the X-ray uneventfully and came back in. "So do you want nitrous this time too Sebastian?"

"No, I don't need it," Sebastian said stubbornly.

"You literally almost fainted in the waiting room," Hunter reminded.

Honestly Sebastian knew he was making this harder for himself, but he wanted to prove to himself that he could do this without it; so he stuck to his guns. "I'm serious Hunter, I don't want it."

"Well in my professional opinion I think you should have it, it will help you feel better. I don't want you to be nervous."

"What I did last time was a lot harder. I'll be fine."

Hunter didn't look convinced but he let it go. "Alright, but Sebastian I need you to tell me if it becomes too much. I don't want you to panic."

Sebastian nodded. "No I'm good," he assured.

Hunter started lowering the chair and slipped on some gloves. "Alright Seb well here's what we're doing today. I'm going to pop off the temporary crown and then we'll work on getting the permanent one in place and making sure it feels comfortable in your mouth. Nothing scary is happening, nothing's going to hurt. You'll be okay. First I'm just going to look around a bit and then I'll take off the permanent crown. Okay?" Hunter explained as he popped on the light and adjusted it over Sebastian's mouth.

As the chair lowered Sebastian got hit with that familiar hopeless and trapped feeling. Something about being leaned back so far made his body want to panic. He hated this but he pushed it down, reminding himself that this situation was only temporary and it would be over in a little while. "Okay," he mumbled distractedly.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Hunter questioned.

"Honestly I'm a little uncomfortable but it's fine," Sebastian admitted.

"Okay, well uncomfortable we can work with, vomit on the other hand... just make a conscious effort not to puke on me and we'll be good."

"Well shit now I want to do it just out of spite," Sebastian smirked.

Hunter rolled his eyes in amusement, but secretly he was glad that Sebastian was joking around because that meant he was okay, at least for now. He moved the mask to cover his face and picked up a mirror and explorer. "Okay Sebastian, open up for me. I'm going to poke around at your teeth again and annoy you."

Sebastian felt his stomach lurch when he heard the soft clink of Hunter picking up the tools. "Ugh. Don't you ever get tired of poking around in people's mouths?" he complained, but opened his mouth.

Hunter smirked. "Well if that were the case I'd be out of a job pretty quickly, huh?" When Sebastian opened his mouth he looked around again. The tooth he worked on last time looked fine, just as he expected. Then he looked at #30 again, that was the tooth with the small cavity on the occlusal surface. Then he looked back over to #14 which was the other cavity that was a little bit worse because there was a thin crack that spread to the facial surface, but it didn't reach the roots. He poked around at it a little and assessed the damage. "I see what you mean with the whole Cheeto incident. There's a crack here but it hasn't spread down to the roots, that's good. No bad karma for you apparently."

Sebastian looked up at the ceiling in mild annoyance and boredom because the TV wasn't on yet. This was sort of awkward but he felt okay and relaxed for the most part. He felt Hunter messing around with his tooth and his stomach turned again, it didn't hurt but the sound was cringe-worthy.

"Okay Sebastian you can close," Hunter said, retracting the tools for the moment.

Sebastian closed his mouth. "Don't mind me, just casually drowning in my own spit here."

Hunter laughed. "I'm sorry, I'm used to my assistants handling that. I'll call Ashlyn in here in a few minutes when we start the fillings. Anyhow, let's get this temporary crown off, okay?" Hunter picked up a tool but kept it out of Sebastian's line of sight.

Sebastian glanced to Hunter in concern. "How are you going to get it off?"

Hunter kept a calm face as he explained what would happened to Sebastian. "I just pop it off, it will only take a few seconds. You might feel a little pressure and feel me wiggling the crown off, but that's it. But I want you to shut your eyes, alright? Trust me here, I'm not going to hurt you."

Sebastian frowned. "Why do you want me to shut my eyes? What are you hiding?"

"I'm not hiding anything, I just don't want you to freak yourself out. Come on Seb, haven't I proven that you're safe with me?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes at the 'you don't trust me?' card that Hunter seemed to pull quite often. "Haven't I proven that I trust you? But I'm still scared, I wish you would try to understand that."

"I know that. That's why I'm going to suggest nitrous again. I don't want you to feel like this, Seb."

"Or how about you do your job and listen to me when I tell you that I don't want it. Fucking talk to me and make me feel better Hunter, I don't want to be drugged up again." Sebastian snapped. He didn't mean to come off as so rude, but unfortunately it was a natural defense.

Hunter was getting frustrated with Sebastian. He was by far the most difficult patient ever. He cared about Sebastian but this was starting to get old. He took a deep breath and calmed himself so he could reason with his stubborn friend. "Sebastian I've already told you, it won't hurt. I promise. This will literally take no more than 10 seconds. Please would you trust me?"

Sebastian huffed in frustration. "Ugh! Just do it." He shut his eyes and opened his mouth.

"Thank you," Hunter said in relief. He went in with the forceps and gently latched onto the temporary crown.

Sebastian instantly hated the feel of this and his eyes shot open in a panic. But Hunter didn't stop or waste time, he started tugging at the crown trying to get it off.

"Sebastian you're fine, just give me a second. Don't close your mouth, I don't want to hurt you," Hunter warned.

A frightened whimper came from the back of Sebastian's throat and he started to panic when Hunter kept tugging, but finally it popped off and Hunter was out of his mouth.

"See? I'm done, I'm done. You can close your mouth for a minute now Seb," Hunter spoke as he put the tool back on the tray.

Sebastian laid there in near shock, his heart still racing from the event. He hated this situation with a burning passion. He hated that he was embarrassing himself in front of Hunter, and he hated constantly being made vulnerable to him. He silently wondered if he would physically be able to do this completely sober without having a mental breakdown.

"Are you okay Sebastian? I'm sorry if that freaked you out."

"I already feel mentally exhausted and we just started. I hate this Hunter." Sebastian didn't look angry anymore, he looked defeated. He was shaking a little and his eyes were red from tears that were threatening to spill over.

Hunter felt terrible for his friend. "Hey Sebastian, look at me. You can do this. You're doing fantastic. I know that this is stressful, but you're handling it well. Nothing will hurt, you just have to deal with me messing around in your mouth a little more. It's not scary, it's just annoying. Be annoyed with me if it makes you feel better. Damn Hunter keeps making me do this shit, he's so irritating," Hunter joked a little, hoping that somehow it would help a little.

Surprisingly that got Sebastian to break away from the total despair for a moment. "You're right. Let's just get this over with. What's next?"

"Next I need to clean the gunk and glue from the temporary crown off of your tooth so the permanent one will fit perfectly. It's made to fit your tooth exactly so even a little bit of glue will keep it from snapping into place," Hunter explained smoothly. He picked up another tool. "Open up Sebastian."

Sebastian opened his mouth again and Hunter cleaned off the area around the tooth. There was a lot of spraying water but this part was easy, it didn't even feel sensitive. When he finished Sebastian spoke. "This is weird. Why doesn't my tooth feel sensitive to cold water? I barely feel it."

"That tooth doesn't have a nerve in it anymore. The root canal removed all of the nerve because it was infected, remember? That means there's no way recept pain or sensitivity."

"That's weird. I mean I can still feel it because my gums feel. I mean... god why does that sound so weird? I hate the word gums. Gross. But yeah it's weird. Now what's next?" Sebastian asked.

"The word gums is even worse in German. It translates to 'tooth meat'. Imagine how weird it is to say that casually. Yeah, there's a bit of tooth meat inflammation here." Hunter laughed to himself a little before getting back to business. "Anyway, next I'm going to pop the temporary crown into place and we're going to make sure it fits. It's ceramic. So that means it's made out of porcelain and it looks very pretty, but it's also strong. Look at it, isn't it cute?" Hunter showed Sebastian the crown.

Sebastian rolled his eyes in amusement. "It's cute? It looks nice but please tell me how a crown is cute, Hunter. Puppies are cute, not crowns."

Hunter huffed. "It's cuuuute," he whined comically. "Stop making fun of me. Alright open up so we can get this into place."

Sebastian opened his mouth and allowed Hunter to do his thing. The next 10 minutes or so were rather boring. It pretty much consist of biting on weird paper and Hunter making last minute adjustments to the crown. Somewhere along the way Hunter turned on the TV and Sebastian watched Arrow while he worked.

"Alright Sebastian, does that feel okay?"

"Yeah, it feels fine."

"Okay good. I'll dry it into place now."

"Stephen Amell is a very sexy man beast. Have I mentioned that?" Sebastian commented.

"Only about every time we watch this show. But he's straight fam," Hunter reminded.

"It's okay, John Barrowman isn't."

"Isn't he married?"

"Shut up Hunter, stop crushing my dreams."

"No offense Sebastian but stop talking. I still need to dry the crown in place." Sebastian was silenced from there and the crown was dried into place. It took a few more minutes to make sure everything was perfect but soon Hunter finished. "Okay good. We're done with this part. Let's move onto the next step."

"Which is...?" Sebastian asked reluctantly.

"Same thing as last time. You're going to sit here with some topical in your mouth for a few minutes," Hunter explained smoothly. He grabbed the pina colada flavored numbing gel and put in on two Q-tips. "This part is pretty boring. Open up Sebastian."

"Yeah. It doesn't get exciting until you're sticking me with needles or drilling into my teeth, huh?" Sebastian said before opening his mouth.

Hunter placed the Q-tips in two different places and told Sebastian he could close his mouth. "You know that's not what I meant. I don't like having to put you through this but it's necessary. Believe me, if I could snap my fingers and have your teeth fixed I'd much rather do that."

"Nah. You probably morbidly enjoy my suffering."

"You're probably right. That's why I went into this profession. I love it when people hate me right off the bat. It's especially comforting knowing that almost every person I meet on a day to day basis, other than the staff, don't want to be here," Hunter said sarcastically.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "This is what you signed up for man. I honestly don't get why you'd want to do this for a living. It seems miserable."

Hunter smirked to himself in amusement. "It pays well, what can I say."

"It can't just be that, Hunter. Besides, I know you have a fuckton of student loans so you can't be that well off, not yet anyway," Sebastian countered.

"I mean... you're not wrong. I had scholarships and shit but I do still have a pretty nice amount of debt under my belt. I'll pay it off in time though, it's fine."

"Honestly Hunter, how the hell do you enjoy this job? We have some time to kill so enlighten me. I genuinely want to know because I don't get it."

Hunter prepped the syringes out of Sebastian's line of sight. "Maybe in a few minutes. Let's get you numb first. Do your cheeks feel tingly?"

"Yes but can't we wait a few more minutes?" Sebastian tried to bargain. "I hate this part. It stung last time."

"In all honesty it stung more last time because you started panicking and I had to finish it fast. When the anesthetic goes in fast like that it stings. This time you're more relaxed because you've done this before and I won't have to do that. I'll do my best to make it painless but you have to trust me. Alright?" Hunter tried to comfort his distressed friend.

Sebastian thought about it for a second. "Okay," he said in a small voice. "Just do it."

Hunter pulled the mask back up to cover his face and pulled the Q-tips out of Sebastian's mouth. Then he picked up the syringe. "Close your eyes and try to relax Sebastian. Open when you're ready."

Sebastian shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He knew when he opened his mouth Hunter was going to give him the shot and that made him more reluctant, but the anticipation was making it worse so he opened his mouth anyway.

"Good Sebastian. Relax your jaw for me... good. Okay stay still, this won't hurt."

'Isn't that what you said last time?' Sebastian remarked inwardly but followed Hunter's instructions. He felt Hunter enter his mouth with the syringe and then felt a little bit of pressure, and then Hunter started shaking his cheek a little and from there that's really all he felt. He was surprisingly relaxed and it was over pretty quickly. "Wait that's it? Oh gross I taste that though, ew." Sebastian said once Hunter was finished.

Hunter smirked. "I told you so. You should try listening to me more often. Open up again so I can rinse all of that shit out."

Sebastian opened his mouth and let Hunter rinse out the foul taste. The second injection on the other side was equally uneventful and it really didn't hurt once he relaxed. There was a moment where he almost felt a pinch but it was barley noticeable and overall a pleasant experience given the whole needle in his mouth thing.

"See Sebastian, this really isn't all this bad once you relax."

"The whole phobia thing makes relaxing a little difficult but I get the gesture behind that," Sebastian mused. "Okay dentist dude, spill. Why out of all the jobs in the world did you chose this?"

Hunter took off his gloves and mask for now and sat Sebastian's chair up. "Do you really want to know Sebastian?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want to know, now would I? " Sebastian quipped.

"Alright smartass, I'll tell you but you're not allowed to make fun of me because you're the one that asked. I get that most people don't like being here. It's uncomfortable and awkward and honestly nobody wants people fucking around in their mouth. But it's always interest me. When I was little I knew it's what I wanted to do with my life, and I mean how many people can say that? My entire life I always knew exactly what I was working towards. Now that I've graduated from school and have been working for a few years I think the reason I wanted to do this has become even more clear. A lot of people genuinely hate my guts or are downright terrified of me, but I get to help them and most of the time I get to prove that this stuff isn't as bad as they think it is. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I get bitten and tooth dust smells like shit and those aspects of the job suck. But sometimes there's that 1 out of every 100 or so people that I really get to help. You can tell I really helped them overcome something they were afraid of, and that alone makes all of the hate and shit I have to deal with worth it. I know it sounds cheesy but I believe we all have a purpose in life, and this is mine."

Sebastian smiled genuinely at Hunter's confession. "Awww, Hunter has a sensitive side," he teased.

"I suppose. You know you near had me in tears last time when you started crying in the middle of the procedure. You were so miserable. I'm sorry that happened to you bud."

Sebastian squirmed uncomfortably at the memory. "It definitely wasn't fun," he remarked. Again he started to wonder if he'd be able to sit through this sober. "Hunter can I tell you something? I mean sense we're already having a chick-flick moment and all."

"Of course."

"The night that I cracked my tooth I had a nightmare that you had to pull it out," Sebastian started. "It was really realistic, well I mean until other things happened... don't ask. But it felt really real and the thought of losing one of my permanent teeth scares the shit out of me. I think that's what got to me the most, and why I told you what happened on the ride back from the airport. With that being said, there's nothing you're hiding from me, right? Are you sure the crack isn't bad."

"I'm sure, Sebastian. The crack doesn't reach the roots. But just to be sure, and for the record I was going to pull these up anyway and look at them before I started." Hunter scooted over towards his laptop and pulled up Sebastian's X-rays from earlier. He turned them to Sebastian so he could see. "I'm 100% sure. Look, see the decay itself is a decent distance away from the nerve of the tooth so that's good, and the crack is really superficial. It's possible that you could have cracked your tooth more if you waited longer, and that could have very well ended badly for you, but you're here now and there's no reason that you shouldn't be able to keep this tooth. Do you feel better now Seb?"

Sebastian nodded. "Much better. I would be really sad if I lost one of my permanent teeth."

"Come in here regularly like a normal person and you won't have to worry about that," Hunter smirked. "Alright Sebastian it's been more than 10 minutes now, the anesthetic has had more than enough time to set in. Since you have a history of having stubborn ass teeth I'm going to check to see if you're numb. But for the record lower first molars are notorious for being hard to get numb fully, so it wouldn't surprise me if this time everything went smoothly." Hunter slipped on gloves and a mask again and lowered Sebastian's chair.

Sebastian ignored his turning stomach and tried to stay calm but his nerves were starting to set in.

"Open up Seb," Hunter said, holding the mirror and explorer above his mouth.

Sebastian opened his mouth and felt Hunter scratching at his tooth. He sort of felt pressure but it didn't hurt.

"Good?" When Hunter received a thumbs up from Sebastian he moved onto #31. "And this one?" Another thumbs up. "Fantastic. I'm going to go retrieve my lovely assistant and then we'll get started."

"Fantastic my ass," Sebastian remarked to the empty room once Hunter left. His tongue felt numb along with left cheek, and overall he felt impressively stupid just laying here with a puffy face. He wiped at his face in frustration. "And drool is leaking out of my fucking face, great. I've been reduced to an infant."

Hunter walked back in with a pretty young woman. She had a small frame and shoulder-length dark hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She also had an industrial piercing on her left ear. At first it seemed to contrast awkwardly with the scrubs and her small girlish figure, but it suited her well. Her scrubs were dark purple and Sebastian thought she was pretty cute. Obviously it wasn't like a 'I wanna fuck you' type cute, well because he was gay, but she was cute nonetheless.

"This is Ashlyn. She's going to be handing me stuff and being helpful." She gave a small smile from the sink where she was washing her hands before taking her seat.

Sebastian gave her a weak smile to be polite but silently he was craving death and the expression on his face made that pretty clear.

"You look like you want to die," Ashlyn remarked playfully. "You're going to be fine, Sebastian. Hunter knows what he's doing."

"Well I fucking hope he does."

Ashlyn laughed as she slipped on a pair of gloves. "Your friend is funny, I like him."

"Don't get excited. He's super only into guys. Earlier he was gushing about how hot Stephen Amell is," Hunter butted in.

"Hunter I said that he was funny, not that I wanted to jump his bones right here, calm down," she said with an eye roll. "We can bond over attractive men. How do you feel about Grant Gustin? You know you sort of look like him."

"I hear that a lot. Still don't see the resemblance."

Hunter cleared his throat awkwardly. "It's good to see that you two are getting along but we should really get started unless we want to be here all night. Sebastian do you want that block thing to bite on like last time?"

Sebastian frowned. "You're no fun. Yeah I guess. I think the bite block thing is just your way of shutting me up."

"Well, dental work in general has a good way of doing that," Hunter sassed before shoving the bite block into Sebastian's mouth playfully.

Sebastian's stomach turned at Hunter's choice of words and he felt himself start to descend into the familiar pit of anxiety that situations like this seemed to put him in, but he tried to make a conscious effort to relax.

Hunter saw Sebastian start to get uncomfortable again and decided to go for a more gentle approach now. "Alright Sebastian I'm using a rubber dam for the bigger one on #14 because I like rubber dams, but its not necessary for the one on #31. This cavity has just barley made it past the dentin. This one shouldn't take long." Hunter put a cotton roll in Sebastian's mouth and asked for the high-speed.

Sebastian shut his eyes and turned the music up to max. He decided a little while ago that music worked better to block out sound than the TV, and since that was a pretty big trigger he didn't want to hear it. He was listening to some metal band like Five Finger Death Punch or Slipknot. He felt when Hunter started drilling and honestly it just felt like spraying water and maybe a little bit of pressure. It was uncomfortable but it wasn't that terrible. Towards the end the drilling felt more uncomfortable because the vibration was more noticeable and it felt bumpy against his tooth, but the drilling didn't last any longer than 5 minutes, it was probably less than that. Overall Sebastian was relatively okay, the drilling wasn't nearly as deep as last time and that made it more tolerable. However, this time was completely sober and without nitrous it was harder to relax and not think about the details.

For Hunter the procedure was relatively easy to do and didn't take that long. Soon he was asking for the low-speed and finishing up the prep. He scraped at the preparation with the explorer to see if there was any soft tissue left but it sounded good and it wasn't getting caught on anything. "That sounds perfect to me. I'm gonna go ahead and do the restoration instead of moving to the other tooth so he'll be able to bite on the rest."

Sebastian briefly opened his eyes to glare at Hunter in annoyance when he scraped at the inside of his tooth but it stopped after a few times and he relaxed again. From here it just felt like a lot of spraying air among other things. The filling part felt almost like someone pressing on his tooth kind of hard but it wasn't as unsettling as the drilling into his tooth part. After a few more minutes Hunter finished and took the rest out of his mouth.

Hunter worked meticulously, making sure to do quality work that would last a long time. Once he was finished he freed Sebastian from his block-like prison momentarily. "That's it for this one, Seb. I need you to bite on some paper so I can make sure your bite is even."

Sebastian shifted his jaw uncomfortably. "After this can I have a break for a few minutes?"

"Of course, you know all you have to do is ask. We'll take five after I make sure the filling's even." He made Sebastian bite on the paper a few times and grind a little. The filling was a little too high so he shaved it down a bit, after which everything looked good. "Alright, looks good. I'll give you a break now. Are you doing okay Sebastian?" Hunter sat the chair up for now and peeled off his gloves. Ashlyn decided to take a pee break even though they hadn't been working that long, announcing before she left that she definitely wasn't pregnant and just drank a lot of water, to which Sebastian comically reminded her to wash her hands after she finished.

"I'm fine. It's kind of uncomfortable but just one more and then we're done, huh? I'm almost out of the woods," Sebastian chatted.

Hunter smiled genuinely at Sebastian's response. "I'm glad you're doing okay. You really are doing fantastic Sebastian considering how terrified you were last time."

"Yeah. I guess it's more productive to talk about our feelings rather than resorting to violence... and you know punching your best friend in the face. Sorry about that by the way, you kind of deserved it though in retrospect," Sebastian mused.

"Nuuu, Sebastian you know it didn't feel nice when you punched me in the face. I didn't deserve that. I just wanted to help," Hunter whined.

Sebastian frowned in mock sympathy. "You poor thing," he teased. "But no, I mean you kind of did step into my personal bubble when I was freaking out and I thought you were gonna grab me. Apparently I go with the fight in fight or flight mode."

"No, sometimes you go with flight. You've fainted a few times, remember?"

"That was once and... like a half because I didn't actually faint that one time. Besides, could have punched you in the face."

"Alright now you're over-killing the face punching jokes. You need new material," Hunter complained.

"Hey I'm hilarious, fuck you," Sebastian defended. Then Ashlyn walked back in. "Did you wash your hands?"

"Damn, no I forgot to do that," Ashlyn said sarcastically as she slipped gloves back on. "Kidding. And I opened the door with my elbow so my hands are still clean."

"How do you open the door with your elbow?" Sebastian wondered.

"It's one with a latch thing. You just press down on it and it unlocks. You've never been in the bathroom?" she asked as she sat back down on the swivel stool.

"Surprisingly no but I feel like I'll end up puking in there at least once," Sebastian mused.

"Gross. No more puking," Hunter interjected. "I love you but I'm so tired of carrying out your vomit. It smells."

"Awwww he loves me. Too bad you could never love anybody as much as you love yourself. If only your dick was as big as your ego," Sebastian harassed his friend playfully.

"You're such a jackass Sebastian," Hunter said, laughing and shaking his head. It was all in good fun and honestly he'd take the harassment if that meant Sebastian was compliant. "I think that's enough out of you. Break's over." Hunter started lowering the chair again and pulled on gloves. "Oh and Sebastian if you were as good at coming in for appointments as you are at sleeping with random men you don't know then you wouldn't be in this situation."

Ashlyn was over towards the side casually trying not to piss herself from laughter.

Sebastian nodded in satisfaction. "That one was good. I can't even be mad."

Hunter smirked and then looked to Ashlyn. "Are you okay?"

She coughed a few times to regain herself. "Perfectly fine. Why do you ask?"

Hunter shook his head in amusement and turned back to Sebastian. "Alright, back to business. Sebastian I'm going to be using a rubber dam for this one. This is a larger restoration and it's important, even more so with composite fillings, that the area is kept very dry and clean to prevent the filling from leaking later on down the road. Is that okay?

"Fine with me. I've been spitting out little bits of tooth for the last few minutes and that doesn't seem to be a problem when there's a rubber dam involved."

"C'mon Ashlyn, step up your game. You're letting the tooth bits get away from you," Hunter joked.

She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I'll suction more aggressively in the future."

"Open up Sebastian, here's your favorite bite block," Hunter said, holding the bite block right under Sebastian's chin.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Understatement of the year." But he opened his mouth anyway because the rest did come in handy.

Hunter placed in the rest and then started trying to get the rubber dam in place, and Sebastian squawked in protest at the weird pressure but then it was in place. "Sorry, sorry. I got it in place. Are you okay Sebastian?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes but gave Hunter a thumbs up. He didn't even want to think about how ridiculous he probably looked with this damn rubber dam around his tooth. This was borderline humiliating.

"Alright Seb, turn your music up. You have like another half hour of this and you're done."

Sebastian nodded and turned his music back on and shut his eyes, trying to go into a self-guided meditation or something. At the very least he tried to distract himself but it only worked so well once he started to feel Hunter working. It seemed to be getting to him more this time. As a bonus he could definitely feel Hunter drilling deeper, and the innocent spraying sensation slowly started melting into an intense pressure that was almost painful. But now he found himself on edge waiting for it to hurt. His whole body was tense and his heart was pounding hard at this point. Then he felt it definitely start to string and he was so shocked that he couldn't make himself move, he just laid there in shock for a few seconds. The stringing got more painful as the drilling continued to go deeper and then Sebastian's body took over and he started flinching away. Hunter instantly stopped when he saw Sebastian flinching, and he asked him something but Sebastian couldn't even comprehend it at this point. He felt weak and dizzy and nothing was making sense.

"Sebastian are you okay? Did you feel that?" Hunter took the headphones off of his friend's ears so he could hear him.

After Hunter asked him a few times Sebastian zoned back in enough to get what he was saying and nodded quickly. He gestured for Hunter to take the rubber dam off. He needed it off NOW. He needed to get up now, get out of this vulnerable position and breathe because he couldn't breathe. He was breathing but his breaths were fast and shallow and it didn't feel like he was getting any oxygen, like he was suffocating.

Hunter quickly took off the rubber dam and removed the bite block, and then started sitting Sebastian's chair up so hopefully he'd feel less trapped. "Sebastian you're okay, I stopped. Just breathe, you're alright. Ashlyn get him some water please. Sebastian look at me man you're alright." Hunter tried to get his attention but Sebastian was full on hyperventilating and having a panic attack.

Sebastian didn't feel any better once everything was out of his mouth and the chair was sat up because he still felt like something was sitting on his chest. At some point he actually started choking and gagging and that's when Hunter grabbed the trashcan and put it in his lap, and then Sebastian got sick. That did something to stop the hyperventilating but now he was dry heaving into the trashcan. He started coming down from the panic attack, puking was a sufficient distraction, but now he felt embarrassed.

Hunter took the water Ashlyn grabbed and put it to the side, then proceeded to politely ask her to leave to save Sebastian from the embarrassment. She obliged and left the two alone.

Hunter rubbed Sebastian's back sympathetically. "You're okay Sebastian, I'm so sorry that happened but don't even think about it right now. Just calm down."

Even after everything was out of Sebastian's stomach it was hard to stop dry heaving, his stomach kept contracting painfully and he was only throwing up gross liquids for a little while. It was gross and it didn't feel good, but eventually he calmed down and got himself to stop throwing up.

Hunter handed him the cup of water sympathetically. "You okay?"

Sebastian rinsed his mouth out. "Well there's still a giant hole and my tooth, and as an added bonus now my stomach is sore from convulsing. Oh and the whole feeling you drilling into my tooth thing sucked a lot too, so I'm not doing all that hot." Honestly it didn't hurt that much, it just sort of stung, but it freaked him out more than if anything if the panic attack didn't already make that clear.

"Sebastian I'm so sorry. Everyone's body is different. Sometimes it has to do with how your body reacts to lidocaine, sometimes it has to do with your anatomy. I think you just need more anesthetic than other people. Since you mention that the time you weren't numb all the way was on #30 I figured it was just that tooth because a lot of people have issues with bottom molars getting numb, but now I think it has to do with how your body reacts to the anesthetic. You just need more, it's not a big deal," Hunter explained. "Shit Sebastian I'm really sorry that this happened to you again, it's not fair."

"Hunter, it's not your fault that my body is weird. This clearly isn't because you're doing something wrong, I mean you stopped instantly. I still trust you. I'm just... kind of shaken up. I know what I can handle and I've definitely reached my limit." Sebastian still looked pretty shaken up.

"Seb I'm sorry but we still have to finish this, I can't send you home with a hole in your tooth. I can get the gas though and get you super high for the rest of this," Hunter offered.

"No, I mean I don't want you to send me home with a hole in my tooth. I like your idea better, get the gas. I can't do any more of this sober," Sebastian said earnestly.

Hunter nodded. "I'll be right back." He grabbed the bag of vomit with a look of mild disgust on his face.

"Sorry about puking again by the way."

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't the type of thing you just decided to do because you were bored, Sebastian. Don't apologize for things you can't control." Hunter tied of the bag of puke and found Ashlyn. "Hey will you take this out to the dumpster for me please? It smells and I don't want the whole office to smell like Sebastian's puke."

Ashlyn looked up from the book she was reading, it was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Hunter noted. "Wow Hunter, you really know how to please a lady," she joked, taking the bag of vomit. "Is Sebastian alright though?"

"He'll be okay. He's tough, but I don't want to put him through too much. I'm getting the nitrous for him now. I'm going to let him relax for 10 minutes or so and then I'll call you back in. I'm sorry that this is running so late."

"I don't mind Hunter. I'm getting paid per hour, remember?" she smirked, heading outside to take out the bag. It was starting to get dark outside already and the air felt cool, it was nice.

Hunter headed back into the treatment room with the N2O canister. "I come baring gifts," he announced. "Druuuugggs."

"You know I'm sort of glad you don't act professional around me. I don't know how any other patient would feel about you coming in here announcing you have drugs though."

Hunter laughed as he started lowering Sebastian's chair. "In all honesty I've never been good at acting professional. Most patients find it amusing and don't mind, but sometimes it results in a pissy Yelp review. Hm..." Once Sebastian's chair was leaned back he put the mask over his nose and started him on the nitrous right away. "Do you want to watch Pokémon again Sebastian?" Hunter chuckled.

"Pffft, no. What am I, nine? It's basically a cartoon, I would never... No I'm full of shit. Yeah I'll watch Pokémon. Turn it on but don't tell anyone about this."

Hunter laughed. "My lips are sealed. None of our friends are going to give you shit for it. I mean Nick got our office turned into a Pokestop."

"How in the hell?"

"I'm not sure honestly but I'm not gonna question it." Hunter flipped on the light and moved it over Sebastian's mouth. "I really hope you didn't mess up the restoration when you were puking. Let me see Seb."

"I don't think so." Sebastian opened his mouth and let Hunter look.

"Hm... alright it looks fine. Sebastian I'm going to numb you again and then I'll let you relax for a few minutes." He grabbed more topical and put it in Sebastian's mouth. He let that sit for a minute or so and then did the other injection uneventfully. Sebastian was already starting to zone out. When he was finished he stuck a cotton ball in Sebastian's mouth and told him not to fuck up the restoration.

Sebastian laid there and let Hunter do his thing without protest. He didn't care about what was happening at this point and was more interested in Pokémon. Ten minutes passed quickly and soon Hunter was asking him to open his mouth again.

"Hunter I don't want it to hurt again," Sebastian worried.

"It'll be okay Sebastian, I won't let that happen again. You're really numb, there's no way you're going to feel the rest of this."

Sebastian would have been more worried if the dose of the gas wasn't so high. He could hardly remember what fear was at this point.

Ashlyn came back in and washed her hands so she could assist. Sebastian looked really out of it. "Shit Hunter how much gas do you have him on?"

"A lot. It's around the same amount I give to patients that are getting their wisdom teeth out but don't want to be sedated. So like I said... a lot."

She slipped on gloves. "Isn't that a bit extensive?"

"Probably, but I really don't want him to be scared after what just happened. You know?"

"It's sweet that you care about him so much," Ashlyn countered.

Hunter laughed a little. "After all the effort I've put into dealing with his crazy ass I better care about him. If not I'm just insane I suppose." They finished up the rest of the filling without protest from Sebastian. Hunter made sure he was 100% numb before he started drilling again, and while he was working he kept a really close eye on Sebastian to make sure he wasn't feeling it. He looked a little uneasy at first but he soon zoned back out and it looked like he fell asleep. Soon Hunter finished up the filling.

"Wake up Sebastian. I need to check your bite." Hunter shook him lightly and turned off the gas.

Sebastian blinked a few times. "I feel drunk."

"Yeah. You're welcome," Hunter laughed. He had Sebastian bite on some paper and other boring stuff, and then he polished off the new filling.

Sebastian stood up when he felt like he wasn't drugged anymore and rinsed out his mouth. "God my face is so numb." He tried biting his lip but he couldn't feel it at all.

"Sebastian stop biting your lip before you bite a fucking hole in your face," Hunter scolded.

Sebastian frowned. "Meanie."

Ashlyn helped Hunter clean up. "I'm curious Sebastian. What's the meanest thing you've ever said to Hunter?" she wondered randomly.

Sebastian had to think about it for a second. "Well... once I told him that his mom should have swallowed him."

Ashlyn gaped at Sebastian. "What invoked that?"

"I don't even remember what we were fighting about honestly. If it's any consolation I'm really glad that your mom didn't swallow you, Hunter."

Hunter gave Sebastian a sarcastic smile. "Thanks man, that means a lot."

"You know Hunter, I think you're my best friend."

"What do you mean you think? I better be your best friend, I've been dealing with your shit since freshman year. You puked on my cat once when you were drunk and I still didn't cut you off, oh and there's that time you punched me in the face, and that other time you said my mom should have swallowed me."

Sebastian smirked. "Alright Hunter, you're my best friend."

"Better fuckin' be."

* * *

 **A/N: Well this is the end of the story. There's nothing else I could possibly squeeze out of it and I think I've drug it out enough. But don't worry, I still have more stuff coming. I'm working on more stuff for Party Poison along with an new untitled Niff story. This story was a nice break from writing couple stuff. The main reason I started it actually was because I had just gone through a breakup and I couldn't bring myself to write anything romantic. I tried but it was coming out angry and I wasn't writing any type of healthy relationship. I think it showed a little bit in Party Poison if you read closely enough, and that's why I needed to take a break from it. I didn't want Klaine to suffer, hahahah. But now I'm over the breakup and I've stopped being a bitter asshole (for the most part). So I can write for Party Poison again, woooh! Well I hope you're all doing well and it would mean a lot if you left a review since I was nice and gave you this monster of a chapter.**

 **Oh and here's a question to answer in your review. Would you rather a new chapter for a brand new story or the next chapter for Party Poison? Thanks for reading!  
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	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I honestly didn't intend to write any more for this story, but once I gave this idea thought I just had to write it. This chapter is a Christmas gift to all of my loyal readers. I hope you enjoy.**

 **Oh and credit to Val for this idea ;)**

 **Update: I can either make the "Christmas isn't over yet" joke or the "this isn't late I'm just 11 months early" joke so I'll make both. I meant to finish this sooner but hey when you're one of my readers you get what you pay for. (Get it? Because I do this for free? Okay.)  
**

* * *

Ashlyn was in the break room sucking on the end of a candy cane. When Hunter walked in she smiled, the candy cane sticking out of her mouth cutely. She also had a pair of reindeer antlers on accompanied by a little deer nose drawn on with eyeliner, because you know festivities and stuff.

Hunter was wearing a maroon tie speckled with Christmas lights with a black button up and his white coat.

"Hunter that tie is so ugly," Ashlyn said bluntly, looking at this tie with disgust.

Hunter smiled. "That's the point. I can't believe Nick is making everyone dress up. Otherwise I wouldn't be wearing this nonsense."

"Well I think it's fun. The office feels festive and Christmas-y. Don't you feel the good vibes, Hunter?"

Hunter rolled his eyes in amusement. "All I feel is the rising levels of tooth decay."

Ashlyn glared at him. "Grinch."

"Filthy animal." (Get it? because she's dressed up as a reindeer? Yeah? Okay. My jokes are so bad I don't know why any of you are still reading at this point.)

Ashlyn gave Hunter a pity laugh because the joke wasn't funny.

Hunter pulled his lunch out of the refrigerator and sat down across from Ashlyn. She was doing something on her laptop and she seemed to be pretty intrigued in it, but she would occasionally blink hard like she was in pain.

"Are you okay?"

Ashlyn looked up from her laptop when Hunter asked the question. "I'll be fine. I've got a headache but I just took two Advil so it should kick in soon."

Hunter just nodded at her explanation and continued to eat his salad but still looked at her curiously.

Ashlyn felt uncomfortable under Hunter's gaze and turned red. "Hunter why are you staring at me?"

"Because I think you're lying," he explained simply.

"You're right, I actually have a dragon egg in my purse and I'm really hoping it doesn't hatch before I get off of work. Don't want to freak out the patients, you know?" She smiled sarcastically at him.

Hunter rolled his eyes, trying to look annoyed, but he secretly loved her spunk, even if sometimes it was accompanied with stupid jokes. He thought about what he'd say next to politely call her out on her shit, but decided he didn't care enough to beat around the bush. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of her, and then showed her the picture before she could ask any questions. "You've rubbed off all of the makeup on the left side of your cheek, so tell me Ashlyn. Why have you been rubbing at your face?" he asked pointedly.

Ashlyn turned even more red if that were possible in embarrassment. "I didn't realize I had done that," she deadpanned.

Hunter raised his brows as if he were looking for an explanation.

"Old fillings are stupid, okay? I don't have a cavity or anything, it's just bugging me a little... or a lot. It's not my fault I swear," Ashlyn whined.

Hunter laughed genuinely in amusement, he couldn't understand why she was so embarrassed. "Ashlyn, I know how teeth work. It's kind of in the job description. I don't understand why you're embarrassed. Fillings need to be replaced eventually regardless of how well you take care of them. Nick just replaced one of mine a month or so ago."

Ashlyn shrugged. "You're right. I should have just mentioned it when it started. I don't know why it's aching like this though, it's freaking me out..."

"Depends. Sometimes fillings shrink, or decay gets underneath them because they weren't sealed properly. Or in professional terms, they just go to shit. Get through the rest of today and we can take care of it later after everyone leaves, if you're comfortable with that," Hunter offered.

"Would it be rude to decline?" she smiled sheepishly.

"I mean you can, but what's your plan B exactly?"

"I'm kidding. I guess so. I didn't plan on just leaving it, it's just a bit awkward to mention this type of stuff. But... my break is over now. We'll continue this conversation later." She closed her laptop and tossed away the rest of the candy cane.

Hunter frowned when she left. He wouldn't admit it to anyone else, but he secretly enjoyed her company a lot.

A few hours later Hunter finished up with his last patient of the day and he went poking around to find Ashlyn. She was over in a treatment room disinfecting it so it wasn't that hard to find her. He stepped in the room.

"Heyyyy," he greeted. "I just finished up with my last patient. Is our date still on?"

"Date, huh? I would have expected a better first date out of you, Hunter."

"This is my go-to first date with all of the ladies, I thought you'd be impressed."

"Damn, and here I was thinking I was special," Ashlyn played along with the joke. "I'll be finished here in a few minutes. Umm... room 3 is clean if you want to set up in there. This is an upper composite, 2nd molar."

"Hm. I think I want to take radiographs and look around a bit before I grab a tray, if that's okay with you," Hunter said casually.

"Aw, you don't trust my judgment? Alright, have it your way, doctor," Ashlyn patronized, but she smiled so Hunter knew she was kidding. She didn't want to come across as disrespectful. "But no, that's fine, probably a better idea."

Hunter laughed lightly. "I'll go set up. Meet me in there when you're finished."

Ashlyn nodded firmly as Hunter left and continued to finish cleaning up the room, but she noticed her hands trembling slightly.

Hunter set up the room and a few minutes later Ashlyn met him in there, but she looked pale. "Hey, are you feeling okay?"

Ashlyn nodded and tried to smile convincingly but it was less than believable. Hunter saw through it easily. "I'm fine. I just brushed my teeth because you know good hygiene and stuff, and that's the thing you do... you know. You know? I don't know. I swear I'm not nervous by the way."

Hunter had to bite back a laugh at her behavior. "I won't hold it against you. I've handled worse. Don't tell Nick I told you but he's terrified of needles, and a few years ago he needed something taken care of and cried like a baby. His dramatic ass begged me to do it without anesthetic, I refused because it was deep. Long story short that's why we invested in an STA wand, he still cried though. I felt bad then but looking back it was pretty amusing." He smirked at the memory. "Anyway, is it okay with you if we take X-rays really quick? Then we can talk about what's going on before we move to the next step."

Ashlyn sat down and let Hunter put the radiation apron on her. She found the story amusing but was too unfocused to laugh. "You don't have to treat me like a scared patient you know. Maybe I'm a little bit uneasy but I'm not scared."

"I'm just treating you how I would anyone else. I'm going to explain what I'm doing and go slowly, even if you get tired of me telling you what you already know. Is that okay with the madam?"

Ashlyn rolled her eyes fondly. Hunter really was sweet and he was making her feel better. "Fine."

"Fantastic." He held the bitewing by her mouth and she opened and let him put it in place. The X-rays were taken quickly and soon Hunter walked back in and swapped the apron out for a bib. "Those will pull up soon. So which one is bugging you?" He started reclining the chair.

"Number 15," Ashlyn supplied. She crossed her arms as the chair went down. "I've had the filling for a long time. I think I was still a Freshman actually..."

"In college?"

"High school. It's old," she laughed awkwardly.

"Well that would explain why it's bugging you. Even the best fillings give out eventually. Unless they're small or you're really lucky... Teeth are assholes sometimes." Hunter picked up the mirror and explorer and held them under her chin. "Mind if I have a look?"

Ashlyn's face screwed up in displeasure. "This is going to be really awkward."

"It's not awkward unless you make it awkward. Now if you try to say that you're embarrassed or something I'm going to laugh in your face because I know you know I've seen waaaay worse. I don't even like using the word 'worse' because your smile is absolutely beautiful. But hey, that's just in my professional opinion." Hunter was definitely smirking from under his mask but Ashlyn wasn't able to see it.

Hunter hit her worries spot on but she played it off, she'd never admit it. "I'm not embarrassed. I'm hot shit and I have no shame," she joked. Ashlyn slowly opened her mouth and granted Hunter access.

"The hot shit part I agree with." Hunter went in and started at #15 to see what was going on. "Okay so I see what you're talking about. The filling itself looks old and discolored, but I don't see any visible fractures or caries. I'll look at the X-rays to be sure but I'm guessing there's some decay underneath the filling," he continued to look around and check for any other issues. Ashlyn didn't seem to have a lot of restorative work, and the rest of her fillings looked fine.

Ashlyn felt Hunter looking around and scratching at a few of her teeth. Honestly she felt sort of uncomfortable and self conscious, especially given the feelings she _definitely_ didn't have for Hunter. She raised her hand so Hunter would get out of her mouth for a second.

Hunter retracted the tools so Ashlyn could talk. "What's up? Are you okay?"

She smirked to cover up how awkward she actually felt. "You know you're not going to find anything else. I only have 3 fillings, and one is real small so it basically doesn't count. No other areas are bugging me either."

"Pfffttt, rude. You have less fillings than I do. But no, I know that. I looked at your chart. Lucky duck you."

She laughed. "How many do you have?"

"Five. And 4 of them are pretty deep. Like I said, teeth are stupid. Anyway, I'm going to look at the radiographs now." Hunter set the tools down and pulled up the X-rays. He hummed to himself in conformation.

Ashlyn sat up. "What?"

"It's what I thought. Some decay got underneath the filling. Composites get leaky sometimes, damn pains in the ass. That's pretty deep though Ash, and I feel like this should have been bugging you for a little while." Hunter looked over to her expectantly for an explanation.

She laughed awkwardly but then cleared her throat. "Hunt, can I tell you something?"

"Of course," he prompted patiently.

"I um... I've kind of been avoiding this situation for a little while. I don't like getting this type of stuff done..." she trailed off.

"What do you mean? Like fillings?"

"Yes." She was having trouble talking about this and felt uncomfortable, but she wanted Hunter to know. "I know it's stupid but it freaks me out. Needles don't bug me but the whole drilling into my teeth part is rather unpleasant. I know it doesn't hurt but it's still a really uncomfortable pressure, and of course this one is deep because I waited, so it's going to be that much more shitty."

Hunter put a comforting hand on her shoulder and smiled gently at her. "Hey, it'll be okay. There are things that I can do. Really loud music helps block it out so you don't hear me working, and that helps you disassociate what you're feeling a little. If it gets too uncomfortable you can raise your hand and we can take a break, alright? There's also that bottle of champagne in the refrigerator in the break room. I was saving it for New Years but we could break it out early." Hunter was more so joking with the last part but Ashlyn's ears perked up at the suggestion.

"I know you were joking but that's sure an idea," she said with a devilish smirk. "I read an article once about a dentist's office that let their patients have a glass of wine before treatment. It's really not that barbaric when you think about it. I'm not talking getting shitfaced but a glass of champagne won't hurt, right?"

Hunter thought about it for a second before coming to a reasonable decision. "Alright. I don't see a problem with it. Alcohol thins out your blood but that shouldn't raise any problems because I'm just doing a filling." He sat up her chair and took off the paper bib for now. "Let's go to the break room. Drinking in a treatment room seems pretty lame to me."

Ashlyn happily got up and followed Hunter. Ashlyn popped the bottle of champagne with an excited eyebrow waggle and poured it into a coffee cup because they didn't have any glasses.

"Do you want some, Hunt?"

"Sure. Alcohol and delicate work on teeth sounds like a great combination. Pour me a cup," Hunter said with obvious sarcasm. They sat down and talked a little while Ashlyn sipped at her drink.

"Wait, are you sure you're of age? I'm not going to jail over you," Hunter said with a shit-eating grin.

"You know I'm 23, jackass," she grunted. "I get that I look 15 but that just means I'm aging better than you."

"Hey, I look great for my age! I still get carded and sometimes patients aren't convinced that I'm old enough to be qualified to drill into their faces," Hunter defended. "I could still pass as a high school student if I really wanted to."

Ashlyn looked Hunter over and shook her head in disagreement. "Nobody would believe you're a high school student unless they were blind. But it would be concerning if you could pass for one anyway."

The conversation carried for about 20 minutes before Ashlyn started to feel the buzz. Her cheeks and chest started to burn red and she felt warm. It was a little harder to follow the conversation too. But overall she felt more relaxed and it was nice.

"Hey Hunter can I ask you something? It's kind of a personal question and none of my business honestly, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to," Ashlyn said sheepishly.

"Shoot," Hunter prompted.

"Well... I know your last relationship ended a little while ago and I wanted to ask why. But I don't want to actually ask why because that seems rude, so take this as me prompting you to talk about it if you want to."

Hunter smiled a little at the odd way she asked the question but answered anyway. "Well... the short version is we weren't good for each other anymore."

"What's the long version?" Ashlyn asked curiously.

Hunter probably wouldn't have talked about it with anyone else. Maybe Sebastian but that's it. This was Ashlyn though so he answered honestly. "We didn't love each other anymore. You know your relationship is fucked when you're more fond of a memory than you are the person standing in front of you. I really didn't want to give up because I thought we could find a way to be in love with each other again, I mean I had so many damn years invested into the relationship that I wanted it to work. But there wasn't any fixing it. We argued all of the time and we couldn't stand each other, it was a toxic relationship. Then she um... she ended up sleeping with someone else. That was the breaking point for me, I couldn't forgive her for it and I didn't want to."

Ashlyn's heart sunk at the story. "Why didn't you just say she cheated then? If she had sex with someone else while still with you then that's not you two not being good for each other anymore. That's cheating Hunter, you don't need to sugarcoat it."

Hunter swallowed hard. "But I understand why she did it. I wasn't giving her the attention she needed and she felt lonely. I was angry but I understood, and it was kind of my fault."

"It wasn't your fault. If she felt lonely she could have broken up with you. Don't blame yourself for a decision she made."

Hunter shrugged. "You know the most fucked up part is after I got over the initial hurt and anger I was relieved. That was my reason to leave her and I was finally free. You know that period of heartbreak you're supposed to go through after a breakup? I didn't have it. I was _so_ fucking relieved."

Ashlyn didn't know how to respond. Her tipsiness definitely wasn't helping her commutation skills right now. So she just kind of smiled fondly at Hunter and said the first thing that popped into her head. "That's not a bad thing. I'm glad you weren't sad afterwards. Heartbreak sucks."

"So I take it that's how your last relationship ended?" Hunter asked gently.

"Yep," Ashlyn said bluntly, finishing off the champagne.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"I don't need to talk about it, but I'll tell you if you want to know."

"I want to know," Hunter said honestly.

"Alright, just remembered you asked," she warned before getting into the story. "Alright, so to be fair we weren't together for that long. It wasn't even a year I think, but damn was I hopelessly in love with him. Then one day out of the blue he broke up with me without warning; I thought everything was fine. So there was the initial shock of him breaking up with me, but as an extra kick in the gut he left me for another women. Straight out of the damn relationship. I was heartbroken and it crippled my self esteem. I tortured myself in all of the ways I shouldn't have by looking at her Facebook and shit, comparing myself to her. I was... I was still so in love with him. It took me a good 3 months of total and utter heartbreak before I realized that I was better than that. In a way I'm grateful that he broke my heart because it taught me that I'm a badass. That doesn't make sense, let me explain." She took a few seconds to think about what she wanted to say before she continued. "It took that heartbreak for me to realize that I couldn't let other people be the soul reason for my happiness, or the reason I felt good about myself. So I learned to wholeheartedly love myself as cliché as that sounds. I learned that hell yeah I wasn't like the girl he left me for and that was fantastic. I wouldn't want to be like her anyway, she was boring and probably only listen to Taylor Swift and watched The Bachelor. Not that there's anything wrong with either of those things but you gotta have depth and dear god if you only watch shitty reality television you have a problem. Anyway, I'm kinda tipsy and talking mad shit right now. Where was I going with this?"

Hunter was genuinely interested in what Ashlyn had to say and enjoyed getting to know more about her. He felt bad and almost angry when he heard how her boyfriend broke up with her, but was happy that she moved on from it. He ended up laughing towards the end and really this little story only confirmed that he most definitely had a hopeless schoolboy crush on this women.

"I know you don't need my assurance but damn Ash, I'm so glad that I know you because you are an amazing person. You're sure of who you are and confident, but you don't let it go to your head and you stay humble. You're witty and hilarious most of the time, and you've got so much depth. I find that fascinating. I feel like I never know everything about you," Hunter babbled. "And you're beautiful. Outside and in. I'm so glad that you love who you are because I would be concerned if you didn't."

"I agree with you," Ashlyn smirked. "But no, thank you Hunter. It feels good to be showered in compliments every now and again," she laughed at herself even though it wasn't that funny, thanks to the buzz mostly. "But you should probably lay off a bit, I've got a boyfriend you know."

Hunter's stomach dropped in horror and disappointment. "Oh shit do you? I'm so sorry I didn't know and you never mentioned–"

Ashlyn snorted shamelessly. "Calm down Hunter, I'm fucking with you. I'm single."

Hunter sighed in relief. "I was about to feel really terrible for flirting with you all night. And like... most of the time." Patients asked if they were together all of the time because of the way they acted around each other. It wasn't intentional either, it just happened.

"Ah, so that's what you've been doing. I haven't noticed, honestly," she joked. "You're so cute Hunter. God you should have seen your face. I'm sorry, that was mean." They were silent for a few seconds before Ashlyn asked the question she was scared to ask, even though it was seemingly obvious she wasn't sure. "Hunter, do you have feelings for me?"

The answer was obvious. Hunter found himself thinking about her constantly, even wondering stupid shit like if she sang in the shower or which Harry Potter book was her favorite. But then there were the more concerning things like than made him feel creepy, like how great of a mother she would make or how damn adorable she probably looked when she was sleeping. So yes, the answer was obvious. "I um... well I believe I do. Are the feelings mutual?"

Ashlyn smiled the widest and most happy grin. She looked dorky as hell but Hunter loved it. "The feelings are most definitely mutual."

Hunter let out a breath of relief that he didn't realize he was holding in and smiled widely too. "Damn, it only took getting you drunk to admit it."

"I'm definitely no drunk. Tipsy at best," Ashlyn smirked. "I would have admitted it sober if you asked me, but you never did and I assumed you weren't interested."

"More like scared you'd say you weren't interested. I know that I'm your boss and we're friends, and I didn't want to mess that up. You know? I know that having relations with your boss is a bit of a of a controversial thing too..."

"I don't care what anyone else thinks. Our working relationship won't change regardless of what happens. We should have a more serious conversation about this when I'm sober because honestly it's hard to focus right now, but no I like you a lot Hunter," Ashlyn said honestly.

"Not to ruin the moment but we really need to deal with the situation with your face before your buzz wears off," Hunter pointed out.

"Oh yeah, that. Damn. Definitely ruins the moment but you've got a fair point." She stood up and poured herself another cup of champagne, but this time chugged it. "Okay. I'm ready."

Hunter laughed out loud but chose not to comment. "I'm gonna go grab the tray. Meet me in the room, alright?"

"I'm gonna brush my teeth really quick, again. Alcohol breath isn't exactly flattering."

They both went their separate ways for the time being and did what needed to be done. Hunter was in the room before Ashlyn was. She was taking a little while longer than Hunter expected so he got up and knocked on the staff bathroom door.

"Hey, are you okay? How much longer do you think you're going to be?"

Ashlyn finished brushing her teeth but lingered in the bathroom for a little longer. "I'm done, I just can't get myself to move. It's sweet that you came to check on me though. You must really care about me," Ashlyn said, clearly joking by her tone of voice.

"Nah, just go sick of waiting for your sorry ass," Hunter teased. "C'mon, get out of the bathroom Ash. I don't need to come in there and get you do I?"

Ashlyn smirked to herself. "My feet don't work."

"It's a pity that your feet don't work. I'm not qualified to fix that issue. Ooh, but I do have keys." Hunter unlocked the door and smiled at Ashlyn sarcastically. "Your chariot awaits madam," he promoted.

Ashlyn, in her easily amused slightly tipsy state, laughed at that joke. "Damn you. I just wanna take a nap, Hunter," she whined, but followed him anyway.

"Did you plan on taking a nap on the bathroom floor or...?"

"Give me a few more glasses of champagne and sure, taking a nap on the floor'll be easy."

Hunter nose-laughed. "Besides, you can take a nap while I'm working." They walked back into the treatment room and Hunter scrubbed in.

Ashlyn sat down in the chair. "But if I'm napping who's going to assist?"

"Funny. I'm capable of working without assistance, I just prefer not to. But it'll be fine. It'll just take a bit little longer. I'll use a rubber dam and that will help keep the area clean, but you already know that, huh?" Hunter finished washing his hands and sat down on that swivel stool.

"I don't know a whole lot of anything right now. The alcohol's starting to hit me. This would be enjoyable if you weren't about to drill into my teeth."

Hunter smirked. "I'm going to stick a needle into you face hole and then drill into your teeth. If you're going to complain at least be accurate." He started to recline the chair without warning, figuring Ashlyn would be alright.

Ashlyn mock frowned. "Not funny."

"I thought it was funny," Hunter said, flipping on the light and adjusting it over her mouth. "Do you want piña colada or flavorless topical?"

"I want an actual piña colada."

"Your ass has already had 2 huge coffee cups full of champagne, you don't need anymore alcohol to get through this."

"Nuuu, I'm not nearly intoxicated enough to deal with you."

Hunter ignored the comment and put some of the tropical flavored topical on a q-tip. "You can complain later. Open up."

Ashlyn couldn't think of anything clever to say so she opened her mouth and let Hunter put the gel in place. "Uh. It tashes grosh," she tried to say.

"Yeah? The lidocaine I'm going to inject into your face doesn't taste much better."

Ashlyn crossed her arms and pouted at Hunter's lack of sympathy. They let the topical sit for a bit before Hunter took it out of her mouth. He then prepped the syringe behind her head. "Okay, open up again."

Despite Ashlyn's claims earlier that needles didn't both her she refused to open her mouth. "Are you gonna use the wand?"

"No. I usually only pull it out for little kids, and Nick. Didn't even bring it out for Sebastian. I'm good at injections, you know that. You won't feel it," Hunter tried to reassure.

"Nuuu, go get the wand," Ashlyn augured.

"Ashlyn," he said sternly. "I would use it if I really thought it would make a difference but it won't. I'm good at what I do. Please trust me."

Apparently slightly drunk Ashlyn was closer to a little kid than anything. She seemed to be acting unnecessarily stubborn. At this point the alcohol was far more hindering than helpful.

Ashlyn proceeded to cross her arms and sack her head at her boss. "I don't want it. Needles hurt."

Hunter stared wide-eyed at Ashlyn in disbelief, but he quickly gathered himself. If she was going to act like a little kid then he would go about this as if her were treating a little kid. "Alright Ash, remember the gross tasting gel? That numbed the area where I'm going to give you the tiny prick so it won't sting. I'll be really gentle and I'll do it slowly so the medicine doesn't sting going in. I pinky swear it won't hurt but you've got to stay really still." Hunter held out his pinky and all.

"I'm not a little kid Hunter," Ashlyn whined. "I know how this works."

Hunter frowned. "You could've fooled me with how you're acting. C'mom, just pinky swear with me. If I break a pinky swear that means I'll have to cut off my pinky, and I can't be a dentist without a pinky so I can't break that promise." Hunter grinned at her enthusiastically from under the mask.

Ashlyn giggled a little. "Okay fine." They interlocked pinkies for a second and then she opened her mouth, but then closed it again so she could say something. "Remember Hunter, if you hurt me you have to cut off your pinky."

Hunter nodded. "I know, but honestly you probably wouldn't feel pain anyway given how intoxicated you are right now."

Ashlyn smiled cutely. "Oh yeah. So that means it won't hurt? Because I'm drunk?"

"It wouldn't hurt anyway because I'm really good at this but the drunk part probably helps. Anyway, please can you open your mouth and keep it open this time? We really need to get this show on the road."

Ashlyn opened her mouth this time and didn't close it when Hunter approached. When he started to inject the lidocaine into the correct spot she seemed pretty unfazed and just stared up at the ceiling. Hunter could have almost laughed at how much effort it took to get through this easy step.

"All done. Did it hurt?"

Ashlyn shook her head.

"Fantastic. You can sit up for a minute while it sets in." Hunter peeled off his gloves and sat the chair up. "So Ashlyn where do you want me to take you on our first date?"

Ashlyn smiled a big goofy smile. "Nothing stupid like dinner or mini golf. Oooh, have you seen those jump house places with trampolines and stuff? I know it's for little kids but I wanna go."

Hunter laughed.

"Nuuu, don't laugh at me. I'm serous. It'll be fun."

"I believe you. It sounds fun. It's just..." Hunter laughed to himself. "I don't know why I'd expect a normal answer out of you. It sounds perfect."

"Then after that you get to pick, even if it's something stupid like a superhero movie or like... glass making or something."

"What makes you think I would want to make glass?"

"Hey, I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life."

They talked for about 10 minutes about random shit before Hunter had to continue with the new step. "As much as I love this conversation we should move on now. Are you ready to get started?"

Ashlyn stuck out her lower lip in a pout as the chair lowered. "But I don't like the way it feels, you know that. I don't wanna."

"Before you argue with me let's check to see if you're numb, alright?" Hunter adjusted the light again and picked up the mirror and explorer. "Open your mouth please for me lovely."

Ashlyn huffed in annoyance and glared at the tools Hunter was holding under her chin. "I can't feel half of my face but by all means, check." She opened her mouth.

Hunter went in and tapped at #15 with the explorer. "Anything?"

Ashlyn shook her head.

"Didn't think so. Now you know it's not going to hurt, so what's the problem?"

"The pressure, Hunter. Remember? I don't like it but you can't do anything about that," Ashlyn whined.

"It's uncomfortable but it doesn't hurt. You can listen to loud music and if you need a break you raise your hand. Let's start and if it get's really uncomfortable I'll stop and give you a break," Hunter offered. He handed her a pair of headphones.

Ashlyn accepted the headphones but still wasn't trilled. "Fine, but no bite block or prop or any of the nonsense. A rubber dam is bad enough. I hate that you like those things so much."

"Hey, there's research that proved it helps fillings last longer so you'll be thanking me later. Anyway, open up so I can put it in place. This will be over quick and then your face won't hurt anymore, like magic," Hunter joked.

"Magic my ass. When you can magically heal my teeth then come talk to me. This is just a pain in the ass."

"For you and me both, especially with how stubborn you're being tonight," Hunter teased her. "Please for the love of god can we start Ashlyn?"

"Only because I'm sick of hearing you complain."

"You complaining about me complaining is a beautiful mix of irony and hypocrisy."

Ashlyn put the headphones on max and played some music, and then finally opened her mouth and let Hunter place the stupid rubber dam in her mouth.

The music was so loud that Hunter could hear it clearly through her headphones but he didn't comment. Once he snapped the rubber dam into place he picked up the handpiece.

Ashlyn gave him a thumbs up and shut her eyes even though that's that last thing she wanted to do, and Hunter took that as his cue to start.

To be fair the sensation of Hunter working wasn't as bad as she remembered. It just felt like cold spraying water. Hunter had a gentle hand too so it didn't feel like he was jabbing the drill into her tooth or anything. She noted to herself how dramatic that sounded but she really thought she remembered this as being way worse. It didn't hurt either. Ashlyn was able to relax after a few seconds and allowed herself to breathe. This was easy and soon Hunter would start to fill her tooth, no big deal. Burning tooth smelled repulsive, and she was used to the smell by now but it was something about it coming from her own mouth that was unnerving. Being at the receiving end of this was shitty but she didn't have any other choice.

For a little while everything was fine but of course it wouldn't stay that way. The drilling got deeper and there was a very noticeable pressure. It didn't hurt and she didn't think it would, that wasn't the problem. That damn pressure was the issue here. It was a cold miserable buzzing sensation and it was scary. She tried to tough it out in the hopes Hunter would finish sooner but this was getting to be too much, she couldn't relax. Ashlyn ended up opening her eyes as if actually seeing the handpiece sticking out of her mouth and moving around a little would help calm her nerves. It didn't, obviously, it made it worse. She couldn't take it anymore and finally raised her hand so Hunter would stop.

Hunter stopped immediately and asked Ashlyn if she was okay. She paused her music she she could hear Hunter, but nodded at the question.

"Do you just need a break?"

Ashlyn nodded but she still looked stressed.

"Alright, I'll give you a few. I'm almost done. That should be the worst of it, okay?"

She nodded again but that wasn't exactly comforting. When they picked back up it would be just as bad. Hunter let her wait for 2 minutes before he wanted to start again.

"Do you think you can handle like 4 more minutes? That's it and then I'll do the filling."

Ashlyn shook her head and held out one finger to indicate she needed another minute.

"Ashlyn honey, I don't know how to make this easier for you. I don't want to give you nitrous because mixing that with alcohol can make you throw up. Um... and there's nobody else here but me so I don't have anymore to hold your hand. I um... oh here." He scooted over to a cabinet and pulled out a cute little stuffed dog with a goofy grin. "Here, cuddle with this."

Ashlyn rolled her eyes in amusement but took the stuffed dog.

"Can we start now?"

Ashlyn shook her head. "If even Oscar can't help then there's only one more thing to do."

She raised her eyebrows in question.

"What? That's Oscar," Hunter explained, pointing to the stuffed dog.

Ashlyn shook her head, that wasn't her question and Hunter knew it.

"Oh? Do you mean the other thing that can help? Well..." he scooted back underneath her head and grabbed Ashlyn's right hand gently. "Here. I'm going to put your hand right here on my knee. I don't know if that will help, but maybe it will a bit. I know this can be scary because it's uncomfortable and I'm just this guy making your mouth feel weird but it's still me. I'm a real person aside from what I'm doing to your face, and I'm here and I care about you."

Ashlyn felt Hunter take her hand and smiled a little. Only he could find the romance in this awkward ass situation. But feeling his knee under her hand helped, and this time when Hunter asked to start again she didn't protest.

"Yeah? Okay. Fantastic." He slipped his gloves back on and Ashlyn put her headphones back on, and they picked up where they left off.

Except Ashlyn felt better now. Nothing changed when it came to the uncomfortable drilling sensation, but this time she didn't feel as trapped inside her own head. It was different. Her hand brushed against Hunter's knee back and forth lightly, and sure that was kind of odd but it made her feel better and gave her something else to think about. He was there and that mattered more than anything else going on.

Hunter finished with the filling after a while of working carefully and took the rubber dam off.

"God, I'm finally free. That was shitty. This filling better last at least 20 years because I'm not doing that shit again for a while."

"That's a funny way to say thank you," Hunter snarked playfully.

"Thank you Hunter," Ashlyn said sarcastically with a fake smile.

"You're welcome," Hunter said back in the same tone. "That was your Christmas present, you know. So Merry Christmas."

"Dickhead."

* * *

 **A/N: Well damn, I finally finished this in February. Happy late Christmas guys. I hope you liked this. I feel like it dragged on a bit, but maybe that's just because I'm also in the process of writing the next chapter for I'll Keep Singing This Lie as I write this, and let me tell you there's some dramatic ass bullshit coming in that one. So much drama and angst. Anyway, I have a very important question: do you ship Hunter and Ashlyn?**

 **Also, obviously I want to know what you thought. Leave me a belated Christmas review if you want. Oh and happy new year I guess. This is my first 2017 post. May the year be full of more amazing updates. Mwah!**

 **(Shitty editing is still and always shitty, this is nothing new.)**


	9. Chapter 1 AU

**A/N: Ermahgerd more words! Damn right I got more words. I love Huntbastain so much and its easier for me to write platonic relationships because I'm lonely and bitter and love disgusts me right now. Sebastian is the sasshole we all need to cope with life. I've been working on this story for months and I'm so proud of it. There's a lot of relationship building because that's the most important part so be patient.**

 **Disclaimer: This takes place in a slightly different universe than the I Think You're My Best Friend story does but the characters are still the same at their cores. I'm adding it here so it'll be easier to find and I'm sure if you liked this story you'll like the one you're about to read. I'll explain more down at the bottom as not to spoil anything but just go into this knowing it's an AU.**

* * *

Sebastian was 14 years old when he started his freshman year at Dalton Academy. The truth of the matter was he wanted to go there mainly because of the reputation the Warblers carried. Everyone said the Warblers were like rock stars. Music was his passion and once he heard wind of this school he knew it was the one for him. Money wasn't an issue. He was lucky in that sense. His parents happily sent him away. The surplus of money didn't come close to making up for how little they cared about him but it certainly made having shitty parents a little more bearable. He would have traded it all if that meant things were different but that wasn't an option.

Long and tragic backstory aside, Sebastian didn't put that much research into every single program the school offered. He glanced over them and came to the conclusion this was a fancy rich kid school he'd adjust swimmingly to. If he only knew what exactly that meant he probably would have reconsidered the decision to go here.

During homeroom on his first day of class, a few announcements came over the intercom. He didn't pay very close attention to most of the boring things that involved class schedule or anything involving sports, however he did write down when the warblers would be holding auditions. One of the last announcements went as follows:

"Lastly Dalton students please don't forget that physicals as well as sports physicals, if needed, will be held over the next few weeks starting tomorrow and will start with freshman. Your teachers will hand out slips today with appointment times. Every boarding student is required to have a physical but sports physicals are optional, however please be aware that you will need one if you intend on trying out for any sport. Also starting tomorrow mandatory dental cleanings and exams will be held for boarding students. You will also find the appointment times for this on the slip from your teacher. Boarding students please be aware that if you do not show up to either of these mandatory appointments you will receive an infraction and your parents will be contacted. As to avoid this, as well as overlap between appointments, pay close attention to the times on your slips because you will be held responsible if you miss your appointment, and if it is held during class please show your teacher said slip and you will be excused. That is all. Have a fantastic day everyone."

Sebastian felt himself grow weak from anxiety the instant he heard about the mandatory dental appointments. Doctor's appointments he could tolerate but there was no way he could handle a dental appointment. This news came as a complete shock but he quickly busied himself with ways to get out of this. Even if his parents were contacted there was absolutely nothing they could do from all the way in Washington to make him attend the appointment.

He received the slip with the appointment information at the end of class but didn't let the dental appointment date bother him because he'd already made up his mind. He wasn't going.

On Wednesday after class, he had an appointment with Dr. Anderson the on-campus doctor. This didn't phase Sebastian too much. After checking into the Dalton Medical Center he realized the staff were really nice and hopefully he wouldn't run into any issues.

A medical assistant named Marley took down his height, weight, blood pressure and boring things of that nature. He was placed in an exam area where he met Dr. Anderson (who insisted on being called Blaine because Dr. Anderson was too clinical). Sebastian took him as a cheery but approachable guy. The exam seemed to be pretty boring until Blaine got eerily close to Sebastian to look at his eyes and ears. The close proximity made Sebastian really uncomfortable, Blaine seemed nice and all and so far he trusted him, but being this close to another person made him feel very uneasy. Sebastian lost the ability to power through this when Blaine asked him to open his mouth, obviously to look at the back of his throat and such but Sebastian still couldn't get himself to do it.

"I uh– actually I just realized I really need to use the bathroom. If that's okay. I'll be right back it's just really urgent," Sebastian cut him off quickly.

Blaine looked at him questioningly as if he knew something was up but didn't fight him on it. "It's down the hall to the left. Hurry back though. We're really close to finishing."

Sebastian felt stupid as he shakily walked down the hall and into the bathroom. He didn't need to actually use the bathroom so he allowed himself to calm down in there for about 30 seconds. He knew damn well the doctor wasn't going to pay any attention to his teeth. This behavior was beyond ridiculous but he couldn't help the paranoia. He quickly finished in the bathroom and allowed Blaine to complete the rest of the exam. For whatever reason, whether due to forgetfulness or to avoid making him uncomfortable, Blaine didn't ask him to open his mouth again. Sebastian was beyond grateful. The only other thing he sort of struggled with was getting blood taken but it only hurt a little and was over quickly. Then he left.

The day of his dental appointment was another story however. It was also after class but this time he didn't bother leaving his dorm. He'd decided earlier that he'd take whatever punishment the school handed to him.

Sebastian watched the clock on the wall slowly tick to 3:30 knowing damn well he wasn't supposed to be in his dorm. But he couldn't help but feel slightly accomplished as the time quickly slipped away and he was out of the woods. It was over now. Maybe they'd forget. He busied himself with homework.

But then around 5:15 he heard a knock at the door. Sebastian silently hoped his roommate just forgot his key but secretly he suspected it was some teacher here to scold him for missing the appointment. He cautiously opened the door.

"Hi. Are you Sebastian Smythe?" a tall, buff guy with dirty blond hair asked him.

"Uh- yeah that's me."

"Hey bud. I'm Dr. Clarington. Are you aware that you missed your appointment today?"

Sebastian noted this guy seemed friendly and personable enough but he quickly took a step back when he realized who this man was. "I'm sorry. I accidentally fell asleep. I should have set an alarm but I was so exhausted that I forgot," he lied quickly.

"It's alright. It happens. Since this was clearly a mistake you don't have to worry about your parents being contacted. You'd be surprised at how often this happens actually. I'm technically finished for the day but if you want to we can get the appointment out of the way now. Otherwise, there might not be another opening until after I've finished with the seniors," the man offered. "You can call me Hunter by the way. Dr. Clarington sounds too professional." Hunter held out his hand for Sebastian to shake.

But Sebastian didn't shake Hunter's hand. He took another step to hide his body behind the door and struggled to find his words. For a split second he considered sparing himself of the embarrassment and just going with Hunter. Maybe he was nice and they could work something out; maybe Hunter wasn't like the others. But Sebastian couldn't take that chance again. "I can't today. I have somewhere I need to be. I'm sorry." He then promptly shut the door in Hunter's face.

Once the door was slammed in his face Hunter started to realize Sebastian missing today's appointment wasn't an accident. "Sebastian if you're purposely avoiding appointments I will have to contact your parents. Unless you'd like to sit down and talk to me about what's scaring you. I don't want to go over your head with this. I can help you and we can work this out like adults."

But Sebastian wasn't an adult yet. He was a scared 14-year-old kid that didn't care about the consequences of his actions so long as he got to avoid this stressful situation. "Call them," Sebastian challenged.

Hunter sighed. "I know you're afraid Sebastian. I promise I can help," he tried again but Sebastian remained silent. "Alright. If that's how it's going to be. Your parents will be contacted about this later on tonight. But if you change your mind let me know." Hunter slid his business card under the door and then walked away.

Sebastian heard Hunter walk away and got up. He picked up the business card from the floor and ripped it up angrily. He threw the remains in the trash and then laid down. He couldn't believe this was happening. He was so embarrassed by his own behavior and frustrated that by going to this school he backed himself into a corner. There would be no silently avoiding this situation and he was worried about what lengths he would have to go to in order to avoid Hunter.

As promised his parents were contacted and he got a phone call from his mom the following night. She threatened to cut his spending money in half and then said she'd take it all away and leave him with the bare minimum. As a last resort she threatened to turn his phone off but Sebastian didn't budge. Eventually she gave up and told Sebastian that if he wanted to fuck himself over it wasn't her problem.

Hunter quickly realized Sebastian's parents wouldn't be of any help after he received an email from his mom that essentially said she couldn't make him do anything and that the issue was his problem. He felt helpless but decided to give Sebastian some space in the hopes that he'd come to him. He wouldn't push a freshman to do anything they weren't comfortable with.

The situation went unnoticed for a while and Sebastian completely forgot about it. He adjusted well to things at school and maintained good grades. The issue didn't arise again until March rolled around and the boarding students had their biannual appointments once again. Sebastian didn't pay any attention to his slip. But this time Hunter knew Sebastian wasn't going to show up so he went straight to Sebastian's dorm room to retrieve him.

Hunter knocked on the door but since Sebastian knew who it would be he didn't answer. Hunter quickly grew irritated and knocked on the door harder. "Sebastian I will get the prefect to unlock this door for me if I need to. I won't allow you to ignore me. Spare yourself the embarrassment bud and just let me in."

Sebastian threw open the door in annoyance. "For god's sake. What do you want? Haven't we been over this already?"

"Ah yes, your slamming the door in my face last time was very productive," Hunter said matching Sebastian's snarkiness. "Anyway," he said as he stopped the door with his foot so Sebastian wouldn't slam it in his face again. "I have a proposal for you. You let me come in and listen to me for 5 minutes. Then I'll leave."

"Why should I do that?"

"Well, Sebastian I'm so glad that you ask. The last infraction you received from avoiding your set appointment was let off as a warning because it was your first one. However if you get another one you won't be allowed to leave campus and that means you'll miss regionals. Now I wouldn't want to deprive the Warblers of any talent so I'm going to be nice. If you talk to me for a few minutes I'll let you off the hook and all will be forgotten. I won't even let the school know you missed your appointment. It's a pretty sweet deal if I do say so myself," Hunter explained with a smirk.

Hunter's arrogance pissed off Sebastian but he didn't see a way around this. No way he could risk missing regionals. "Fine." Sebastian stepped aside and allowed Hunter to come in.

Hunter smiled cockily and pulled the chair from the desk out and sat on it backward so he was facing Sebastian. "Relax. We're just talking. Alright? Sit down." But Sebastian remained standing with his arms crossed as an act of defiance which didn't surprise Hunter at all. "Or that works too."

"You said 5 minutes. Yeah?" Sebastian set a timer on his phone and then turned it around to show Hunter. "Well it's started."

Hunter smiled widely in amusement at Sebastian's behavior. "You crack me up, kid. But I'll skip the pleasantries. I know you probably think I'm being a jackass holding the Warblers over your head like this but I can't allow you to ignore me. I could be mean and tell you that if you don't come to your appointment I'll give you the infraction but I've given you my word and I won't do that. I'm trying to compromise. I've given you 6 months to cool down so the least you can do is talk to me a little and explain to me why you're acting like this." He observed that Sebastian had his arms crossed and was trying his best to look intimidating but Hunter saw through the behavior. He refused to look him in the eyes and stayed as far away as possible. His body language was defensive and scared.

"I don't have anything to say," Sebastian said simply.

"Fine, then I'll do the talking. Did you know that there are 4 main categories of dental fear? There's fear of specific stimuli. So needles, specific tools, even shame; they all fall into this category. Then there's distrust of the dentist which is also common and can be accompanied by the first category. There's general anxiety which can sometimes happen without a specific cause and is usually where the patient is afraid of everything or can't specifically pinpoint what they're afraid of. Then there's the less common but still plausible fear of a medical emergency. Quite honestly I'm trying to figure out which category you fall under," Hunter started.

"I don't fall under any because I'm not afraid." Sebastian knew lying at this point wouldn't do much good but he wouldn't admit that he was afraid.

"I don't think that's true Sebastian. You see I know that you showed up to your medical appointment with Blaine without major issue. So that rules out you just being ornery for no apparent reason. The only rational conclusion to draw from this behavior is that you're avoiding me for a specific reason... either that or you just really hate my face. For all I know you really did take a surprise nap that day and didn't avoid the appointment intentionally but then when I showed up to your door you saw my face and were just like 'nope I hate this guy'. I'll go ahead and rule that one out since I'm pretty likable."

"You're really not that likable," is all that Sebastian offered. He refused to address anything else that Hunter said.

"I suppose I put myself in that position whenever I decided that I'm not giving up on you. You might hate me for this Sebastian but I really am just trying to help." Hunter saw a wave of something cross Sebastian's face but he couldn't quite pinpoint it. But either way, some part of that statement gauged a reaction out of him. "Blaine told me you were the one who got panicky when asked to open your mouth. Is it really that bad? I mean you know he wasn't a dentist. So is this an embarrassment issue or were you afraid he'd see something?"

"I didn't get panicky. I had to take a piss. You're reading way too deep into this buddy. Looks like this mock therapy session is over though. Your clock ran out," Sebastian said holding up his phone.

Hunter swore inwardly realizing that he hadn't gotten anywhere with this kid yet. "Sebastian I want to prove to you that I'm somebody you can trust," he said as he stood up.

"Then leave. You gave me your word that all I had to tolerate was 5 minutes. Prove to me that your word means something."

"You're smart. You knew exactly what angle to play to get me to leave huh? I mean you're right. I did give you my word and I'll stick to that but I hope you take something away from this Sebastian. I could get in trouble for neglecting a patient of mine but I'm sticking my neck out for you to prove that I'm trustworthy. I hope that means something to you." Hunter left a business card on Sebastian's desk before he left.

"I'm not your patient," Sebastian muttered under his breath after Hunter left. This time he didn't rip the business card up though. He had some things to think about.

Hunter was remarkably patient with Sebastian and didn't bother him again until the following year. Soon sophomore exams and cleanings came around and naturally Sebastian didn't show up to his. Quite honestly he didn't expect him to at this point. Hunter walked to the Warblers practice room where he knew they were practicing. He knocked on the door and popped his head in.

"Hey boys. I'm really sorry to interrupt but you know how these appointments are scheduled. I need Sebastian," Hunter said to the council. Wes dismissed Sebastian.

Sebastian ducked out of the practice room with a red face. "Are you shitting me?" he fumed. "Do you really think you're more important than practice?"

Hunter rolled his eyes. "It was almost over. You'll miss 10 minutes of practice. I used to be a Warbler so I'm well aware of how it works."

"What do you want Hunter?"

"See? We're on a first name basis now. I'd say this is the start of a beautiful friendship. So, Sebastian, you remember our deal from last year. Shall we continue this meeting in your dorm away from peering eyes? Since I'm sure everybody assumes you actually attend the appointments I set for you."

Sebastian huffed but led Hunter back to his dorm room.

"I'm bumping the time up to 10 minutes since I guess this means I'm allowing you to run from me for another 6 months."

"Fair enough. Feel free to talk AT me for 10 minutes," Sebastian said with his arms crossed.

"Of course it seems like I'm talking at you when you don't put any effort into the conversation. Well when I put it that way this sounds like a bad date. Maybe the reason I'm not getting anywhere with you is because I'm not bringing you flowers. Or the teenage boy equivalent of flowers which would probably be video games or Doritos." Hunter laughed lightly at his own joke. "So what do you want me to start bribing you with food or something?" Hunter was trying to get a smile or a smirk at the very least out of Sebastian but it didn't seem to be working.

"Why do that when blackmail seems to be working just fine for you?" Sebastian mused.

"Blackmail is a strong word. I'd like to think of it as slightly illegal motivation."

Sebastian rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"Alright, Sebastian so let's get into the good stuff. Are you concerned about your health at all here? I've looked at your records and there's nothing recent so I know you're not seeing anybody besides me, and you're not even seeing me technically. Eventually this is going to catch up with you and I'm trying to tackle the situation before it has to come to that. There's no reason for it. If there's already some type of issue going on then there's no reason for it to get worse. But sooner or later this behavior will fuck you over and I don't want to see that happen," Hunter started.

"Well I'm fine," Sebastian said stubbornly.

"I believe that Sebastian because it's within the realm of possibility right now. If you're fine and there really isn't an issue going on then that's the time to come in. Let me do a quick cleaning and exam and then I'll send you on your merry way and we can avoid any major procedures. But I know you won't. I see it all of the time. I have another practice that I work at outside of here and let me tell you something. People in general, and even more so people that are fearful, don't come in until there's a problem. The rational ones will come in at the first touch of pain to either avoid letting it get worse and having to pay for an expensive procedure or to avoid having to put themselves through a major procedure. But then there are the ones who rely on over the counter pain relievers or chew on one side of their mouth for months or even years until their body forces them to deal with the situation. When a tooth finally starts to die the pain is almost unbearable for about a week. Nothing will help. It will stop when the tooth successfully dies but that's when it forms an abscess, and trust me those don't feel good either. They can get bad and make your face swell up, and that can actually kill you if the infection from the abscess gets into your bloodstream. I've seen it happen. I did my residency in a hospital, and for the record, it was nothing like House, and there was nothing we could do once it's reached that point." Hunter was closely monitoring Sebastian's body language and hearing this information was definitely making him uncomfortable but Hunter knew the younger boy wouldn't admit it. "Sebastian do you really want that? Especially when you have someone right here that wants to help you."

Sebastian swallowed hard but quickly recovered by making an ass of himself. "So now you're trying scare tactics? Got it. Are we done yet?"

"I'm trying to educate you on the reality of the situation Sebastian. The second you change your mind you spare yourself of a future like that," Hunter persisted. But he realized Sebastian wasn't cracking. He needed to try something else. "Alright fine. Ask me questions at the very least. Anything. I don't want to just scare you. I want to know what's going to reassure you and make you feel better. At least give me that opportunity."

Sebastian thought for a second but shook his head. "I don't care."

Hunter was frustrated but he wasn't letting it show. "I know that's not true. If you truly didn't care we wouldn't be doing this dance. Look kid, you need to give me something. The only way I can feel comfortable dragging this out is if I know I'm getting somewhere with you. If you're just going to shut me out I might not be as nice with my offer next time."

"Just keep the threats coming," Sebastian laughed. "I don't get why you care so much but let me give you some advice that's going to make your life a hell of a lot easier. Get up, open the door, and fucking walk out. Boom! You've added 10 more years to your life just by getting rid of me."

"Because Sebastian I see adults every day that are at the end of the road you're starting on and I'll be damned if I let you stay on it. I have the chance to stop this before you have to find out the hard way how much a fear like this can damage somebody's life."

"You think I don't know!?" Sebastian shouted before he could stop himself. His face blanched when he realized what he said.

Hunter was speechless. Sebastian finally admitted he was afraid. "Sebastian-" but Sebastian cut him off.

"No. Your time's up. We're done." Sebastian showed him his phone as the timer went off but his hands were shaky with rising panic.

"Sebastian it's okay. This is a good thing. The first step to getting help is admitting there's a problem, and there's nothing shameful about that. I'll leave if you want me to but I need you to know there's somebody right here that wants to listen to you and understand. You don't have to go through this alone," Hunter offered as gently as possible as he stood up.

This was the second time Sebastian made a fear-based decision that he knew was harming him more in the long run. But he couldn't find the courage or trust in himself to accept the help standing here in front of him. It hurt telling Hunter to leave again because part of him so badly wanted to go running to somebody and admit how awful it was putting himself through this. But he made Hunter leave anyway because the fear always won.

Hunter did not want to leave Sebastian in the distressed state he was clearly in but this situation was so delicate. Staying against Sebastian's wishes would mean going back on his word and destroying the trust he'd been trying to build for the past year. He'd have to wait until March when 6 more months had passed. But next time would have to be different if things were going to change. Hunter went back to his office to rethink his approach.

Once Hunter left Sebastian crawled into his bed in defeat and huddled in on himself. This didn't feel like a win. He should have been satisfied with himself for successfully avoiding another appointment but the consequences of these decisions he kept making were starting to catch up with him. Sebastian should have felt more upset that Hunter knew there was something going on now but really his own lack of bravery was upsetting him more. Trust shouldn't have been this hard.

Six more months passed. This time Hunter pulled Sebastian out of class which was a regular occurrence for boarding students.

"You couldn't have pulled me out of geometry? I actually enjoy psychology. You're ruining my education here Hunter," Sebastian complained comically.

Hunter was shocked that he wasn't met with aggression from Sebastian this time but he chose not to voice that thought as to not antagonize the younger. "How are you feeling today Sebastian?"

Sebastian blinked a few times in confusion at the question. "I'm not greeted with a threat this time?"

Hunter shook his head. The aggression was back. "First of all I never threaten you. I just made you aware of the possible consequences of not complying, and let's be real. I never make the terms that unreasonable. That's why this time I'm not setting a time limit. We're gonna go back to your dorm and have a proper discussion and I'm not going to leave until I'm satisfied with the amount of progress we've made. But I will take your feelings into account and if it makes you anxious we'll take a break."

Sebastian felt his heartbeat speed up a little as he walked into his dorm. So far Hunter knew little to nothing about his situation and this time he couldn't just run out the clock.

Hunter noticed Sebastian looking a little pale as he sat down. "What's going on in your mind kid?"

"Don't call me kid," Sebastian snarked. "I hate that. I'm 16. I'm not a kid."

"I didn't say you were. It was just a nickname. It was supposed to be fond, not demeaning."

"Why would you be fond of me in the slightest?" Sebastian almost laughed. "All I've done is given you shit and made your job harder. You should hate me."

"Sebastian, why would I hate you? Yes, you're snarky and stubborn but I know you're just scared. You just need somebody to be patient with you and gently guide you in the right direction. That's what I'm here for. I want to answer any questions you might have and gain your trust. I'm not a bad guy. I know you might see me that way because of my persistence but really if I just threw in the towel and let the school punish you for the misconduct then I'd be the real bad guy. I don't want you to get punished for being afraid," Hunter spoke. He noticed Sebastian's body language was still defensive and uncomfortable so he decided not to push his luck. "So Sebastian tell me, what made you want to come to Dalton in the first place?"

Sebastian messed with a loose thread on his sweater. "Because of the Warblers. They looked awesome and I wanted to be apart of that. It was just a gut feeling I had when I watched one of the performance videos on YouTube. I just knew this was where I'm supposed to be. Getting away from home was a plus too."

Hunter smiled a little. "I was the same way when I was your age. I was so eager to get out on my own. I missed the hell out of my parents though. I thought I wanted to be on my own but being away from them was hard. But the Warblers made it easier. They really were like a band of brothers. I don't blame you for wanting to come here for that."

They chatted for a few minutes. Hunter noticed Sebastian slowly become more comfortable and once the conversation died he decided it was time to start discussing what he really came here to find out.

"Alright Sebastian. I know you don't want to talk about it but I really need to ask you a few questions."

Sebastian groaned. "That's a pity. I just started to successfully repress the urge to set you on fire."

"Yeah yeah I'm the worst. It's been established. So let's start out with what you're afraid of happening. Think back to day one when we met for the first time. What made you give up the act and slam the door in my face? I imagine it would have been easier to just come with me and at that point, you were willing to accept a punishment if that meant not coming with me. You didn't know the school would just let you off with a warning. What in your mind rationalized that punishment was preferable to just going with me and letting me clean your teeth?"

Sebastian cringed a little at Hunter's words. He didn't want to answer this question so he didn't at first.

"It's okay Sebastian. Just think about it. I'm not going to get mad at you for telling the truth. What were you afraid would happen if you came with me?"

Sebastian looked at the floor. "I don't know."

"I don't think that's true Sebastian. Try again."

Sebastian sighed and ran a hand over his face. "What happens if I don't tell you?"

"I don't think that matters Sebastian. I can see you fighting with yourself. You want to tell me but you're afraid of what will happen, and all that's going to happen is I'm going to make this easier for you. There's no answer you can give me that's going to make me flip a switch and turn into this evil person that's going to drag you into my office."

Hunter was right, and at this point Sebastian trusted him enough to know he wasn't in any danger. "Okay. Fine. What was the question again?" he asked shakily.

"What were you afraid would happen if you came with me?" Hunter asked gently.

"I don't know how to answer that question because it isn't just one thing."

"Okay. Start out with the first thing that comes to your mind," Hunter said patiently.

"Embarrassment. I knew you'd end up seeing me upset if I came with you because that setting... it makes me like this, and I didn't know you then. I didn't want you to get angry at me for being afraid or force me to cooperate. If I went with you I could have trapped myself in a situation where you could have made me get the stuff done... even if I was afraid. You'd start doing things and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it because I'd be too embarrassed to speak up," Sebastian finally admitted with a red face.

Hunter felt appalled at the implication he'd ever do such a thing. Instead of addressing specifically what Sebastian said and reacting emotionally because Sebastian's fear was clearly stemming from what another dentist did to him and that infuriated Hunter, he chose to gently debunk his worries. "Okay. Can I tell you what really would have happened?" Hunter asked.

Sebastian nodded a little into his hands.

"As we left your room I would have noticed you were uneasy and tried talking to you about why. I wouldn't have started anything until I knew why you were afraid and you felt comfortable moving forward. I would have made sure you were okay before we started anything. If you started to feel too uncomfortable or panic at any point you'd know to raise your hand and I would stop immediately. Then we'd find a solution or I'd wait until you calmed down and then we'd continue. But at no point would I do anything if you felt like you couldn't handle it. Now knowing it would have gone like that, do you feel any better?"

Sebastian shrugged. "That helps a little."

"Okay. What else do you want to know?" Hunter asked. He could see Sebastian struggling with himself again. "You want to know if anything I do hurts right? That's what you're worried about."

Sebastian still didn't look up but he nodded a little.

"The answer is almost always no. The only thing I ever do that I can't really prevent from hurting a little is draining abscesses. That's what we talked about last time, what could happen when a tooth dies. Infection is really acidic and cancels out anesthetic so it's impossible to numb the patient until the infection is gone. But even then it's just for a second and then the pressure is relieved. It's like popping a pimple," Hunter explained.

Sebastian felt squeamish listening to that explanation. "What about more common things?"

"Common like what? A cleaning? That doesn't hurt. It might feel a little uncomfortable but I'm really gentle so it definitely isn't painful. Fillings don't hurt either. I leave topical numbing gel in the area where the injection is going to go for quite a while so it takes full effect and the injection doesn't hurt. Then the patient is numb so they don't feel any pain."

Sebastian felt sick even at the good explanations. "Okay. I don't want to know anymore."

"Are you okay Sebastian? Did any of that trigger feelings of anxiety?"

Sebastian laughed awkwardly. "It all does. I'm uncomfortable talking about this. It all gives me anxiety."

"Okay. Well, you tell me if it's too much. I'm already impressed with the amount of progress you've made today. I want to ask you one more thing and then we can wrap this up alright?" Hunter didn't want to push his luck and make Sebastian so uncomfortable that this put a bad memory in his mind.

"Okay," Sebastian said in a small voice.

"Are you currently in any pain?" Hunter asked.

"No," Sebastian said emotionlessly. Hunter couldn't tell if he was lying or not. In retrospect, and based on his reactions thus far he wasn't convinced. But there could have been something else under the surface that Hunter hadn't caught onto yet.

"Okay Sebastian. I hate leaving this situation for another 6 months but I am proud of how far you came today. Next time I'm going to push you just a tad bit farther to see what you're capable of. So be prepared for that but don't stress out about it. It'll never be more than what you're comfortable with. Do you have any questions before I leave?" Hunter asked.

Sebastian merely shook his head.

"Alright. Let me know if anything changes. I'm leaving you my business card. If there's anything you'd feel more comfortable telling me over email rather than in person shoot me an email. I'm the only one who opens them." Hunter set the card down on Sebastian's desk. "Make sure that you're keeping up good hygiene. I know that sounds stupid but its even more important since you aren't coming to appointments. It can be mostly possible to avoid issues if you're vigilant. But you really have to stay on top of it Sebastian. No going to sleep before brushing your teeth, drink fizzy drinks with straws, wait 15-30 minutes before brushing your teeth after eating or drinking anything acidic, flossing is really really important too. If you're not already doing it then start now." Hunter saw Sebastian starting to look annoyed. "Yeah yeah I'm overstaying my welcome. I'm almost done." Hunter grinned stupidly to himself as he pulled something out of his messenger bag. "Can't believe I never thought to bring you one of these before. Here." He handed Sebastian a small plastic bag.

Sebastian tentatively took the bag before realizing what's inside. He rolled his eyes and gave Hunter a tired look.

"What? Don't look at me like that. You're supposed to replace your toothbrush every 3-4 months. Besides I gave you one of the good ones. Isn't it cute? Oh and there's floss in there that you should definitely use it if you don't because gum disease is not a good time."

"I've just witnessed a grown man use the word cute, and in reference to a toothbrush of all things," Sebastian commented to himself.

"Okay, first of all I'm comfortable enough in my masculinity that using the word 'cute' doesn't bother me in the slightest. Secondly that toothbrush is a looker and I will not hesitate to let it know how sexy it is. Have you seen those toothbrushes with the bristles all frayed and begging for death? Not a sexy toothbrush. Do you get what I mean?"

Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows at Hunter and looked at him like he was insane.

"Yeah. That's my cue to leave. I really am proud of you though, Sebastian. I want you to know that. Let yourself feel proud of the progress you made today. I know it was difficult. You did good," Hunter said as he left.

"Alright, get out of my room with your motivational speaker ass."

Hunter smirked at the comment; it didn't have the same venom behind it. It was almost fond. Almost.

After Hunter left Sebastian felt so damn conflicted. He wanted to believe Hunter was different. But there was a part of himself that didn't want to trust under any circumstances. It was the only way to keep himself safe. Trusting Hunter would mean handing over that safety blanket.

When Hunter got home he stayed up until midnight researching different things to make sure he got this next step right. After hours of reading and consulting different reliable sources, he was satisfied with what he learned. This is how he was going to help Sebastian.

The rest of Sebastian's sophomore year was full of achievements despite his troubles. He was one of those people that kept himself busy and buried himself in work so he wouldn't have to think about what was wrong. But he was one hell of a student and a Warbler because of it. Soon the next school year came and he was an upperclassman now and a force to be reckoned with.

On the day of Sebastian's "appointment" Hunter made sure he'd have enough time to properly work with Sebastian so he waited until he was finished with all of the students that had real appointments. It was around 5 pm when Hunter walked to Sebastian's dorm. Thankfully his roommate had lacrosse practice so he'd be gone for a while.

Hunter knocked on the door and Sebastian let him in. However the younger seemed more anxious this time than he was in their more recent meetings.

"What's wrong Sebastian?" Hunter asked.

Sebastian shrugged and blew off the question.

"Do you want me to explain what we're doing today so you don't have to worry about it anymore? I promise it's nothing you can't handle," Hunter offered.

"Is today the day you finally get sick of my shit and force me to cooperate? Get me restricted so I can't perform and take the Warblers away from me," Sebastian bit out as he sat on his bed.

"That's not even close Sebastian. I won't be forcing you to do anything and I'm not going to get you in trouble. Do you really think after all of this I'd just back you into a corner with an ultimatum?"

"Last time you said this time would be different so how the hell am I supposed to know what you have up your sleeve?" Sebastian said.

"Okay lets clear the air so you'll stop assuming the worst. Today I want to try a form of exposure therapy. There will be absolutely no pressure for you to let me do anything to your face hole, alright? I'm not expecting that. The thing is with your specific phobia a lot of the potential triggers are unavoidable so it's a matter of desensitizing you a little to reduce that anxiety. Avoidance makes anxiety worse and the goal today is to target avoidance behaviors. I'll expose you to specific stimuli that cause distress, which yes doesn't sound fun but is proven to be effective in reducing anxiety. You've told me that pretty much everything scares you and through a little exposure therapy we can at least shrink that list. But you have to be willing to subject yourself to stimuli that scare you in order for that to happen. Sebastian, through this journey I'm not just looking to fix whatever is or isn't, I'm not judging, wrong with your face. I want to target the anxiety too. But the real question is do you want this to get easier so you can eventually feel comfortable with appointments? As in are you willing to address this anxiety and try to do something about it?"

That was a lot to digest so Sebastian was silent for a few seconds in thought. "I don't know," he finally said. "What do you mean by stimuli that scares me? What would you want me to do?"

"Okay so the goal of exposure therapy is to make the thing or things that scare you less scary by letting anxiety run its course naturally and letting your body wear itself out until you calm down. It literally rewires the pathways in your brain that relate those things to distress. But how far we go depends on your needs. So maybe for you to reach a significant level of distress all you have to do is walk into my office, or maybe it will take sitting in the chair and reclining it. Ideally, by the end of the session your anxiety will have reduced by 50% without succumbing to avoidance behaviors," Hunter explained. "Is that something you'd be willing to try?"

"Maybe," Sebastian said reluctantly. "Do you really think it would help?"

"Well in 2 years at Dalton you haven't stepped foot into my office, which is fair and I agreed to let it happen, but I think this would help desensitize you to specific things. It won't be a cure-all because there are other elements of your phobia that will only be reduced when you have full trust in me but I'm hoping this will help in accomplishing that too."

Sebastian thought about it for a second. "I don't think I want to," he said.

"What's the worst that can happen Sebastian?" Hunter asked.

Sebastian didn't know how to answer that because he really did trust Hunter. He trusted his judgment and trusted he had the best of intentions. Assuming he was serious about not forcing him into anything then there really was nothing to be afraid of– not afraid enough of to fight Hunter on this. "I don't want to embarrass myself," Sebastian settled on saying.

Hunter knew what Sebastian was talking about because of their previous discussions. "Sebastian you're a human being that experiences emotions and I by no means expect you to be an emotionless cyborg. People feel things. Everyone. Even Chuck Norris. He could be afraid of ducks for all we know." That didn't seem to help much so Hunter decided to take a slightly different approach. He sat down on Sebastian's desk chair for a moment. "I'm afraid of things too Sebastian. So long as you don't puke on me we'll be doing fantastic. I threw up on Blaine once. I know that sounds like a made up story but it really happened. He was taking blood from me and I made the mistake of looking down at it. Then I just puked. On him. Not a good time."

"Your puke story isn't enough to make me feel great about making myself considerably vulnerable. I don't think you get it man. I don't trust people anymore. I keep shit to myself and I don't ask for help. I'm so damn stubborn the infamous lasso of truth wouldn't make me budge," Sebastian struggled to explain.

"And when you say stubborn you mean utterly traumatized by past experiences. People don't become this closed off just for shits and gigs. Someone severed your trust to the point where you don't trust anyone at all. This isn't just a distrust of dentists thing. It's a distrust of all people thing. So this issue has never really just been my profession. Trust just isn't in your vocabulary. You don't know how. This is how you keep yourself safe, right?" Hunter analyzed. "Something happened in your life that messed you up so bad you won't let yourself trust anyone even if it goes against logic. I think this goes deeper than the situation at hand too."

"Listen buddy," Sebastian bit out, "I didn't sign up for a therapy session. I only told you that stuff because I didn't want you to take it too personally when I shut your ground-breaking idea down. I admire your persistence, I really do. But this just isn't going to work. It would– maybe. If I cared. The problem is I don't. With that being said, I think it's time for you to leave." Sebastian got up and held the door open for Hunter with a sarcastic smile.

Hunter's face contorted in an ugly display of the realization that he fucked up. "Sebastian, no. That's not the reaction I meant to gauge. I want you to talk about it– if it helps. But you don't have to. Honestly we can just forget l said whatever it was to make you go into defense mode and continue on this journey of self-discovery, and when I say self-discovery I mean you, yourself, discovering I'm trustworthy. As in 'hey Hunter isn't as awful as I thought'. So, not the intended meaning of self-discovery but you see where I'm going with this." Hunter was trying to avert Sebastian's attention. He knew exactly what he said that set Sebastian off but hopefully it would make the younger feel better to believe he didn't know.

Sebastian looked at him skeptically for a few seconds but then decided to close the door. "Give me one good reason to do this."

"Listen, I could give you at least 20 without putting much thought into it but I'll settle on just one. Deep down you know you want to because this is the first step to conquering a phobia that you'll otherwise be struggling with for the rest of your life. To be perfectly honest with you maybe it will never completely go away even with your full cooperation, but I promise I'll at least get you to a point where the phobia isn't beating you anymore. Once you're an adult there won't be an authority figure to step in and tell you you're being stupid. This is the only time in your life where you'll get that. After Dalton you'll be fully responsible for yourself. Now do you really want this to carry into your adult life or are you willing to tackle it now before it has the chance to do some serious damage to your life? I gave you the whole 'I've seen the end of the road you're starting on' spiel a while back so I'll spare you the speech. But that's my reason, basically a really kind 'stop being stupid'."

"Fair reason," Sebastian muttered to himself. He seemed to be deep in thought.

"Come on Sebastian don't even think about it. Just get up and come with me before you have the chance to talk yourself out of it. You know nothing is happening to your face, this is just addressing the anxiety. We're gonna kick it in the ass. I mean maybe not completely in one session but you get the idea. At the very least after this you'll know you can step foot in my office without dying," Hunter encouraged. "I know you can do this Sebastian. I believe in you."

"Cool. I sure as hell don't," Sebastian deadpanned.

Hunter frowned. "Not to be blunt but if you don't at least try then I see why you have no reason to believe in yourself."

It was something about that statement that infuriated Sebastian. Hunter subtly calling him out on his self-pity, but just in the right way where Sebastian knew the only person he could be mad at was himself. It infuriated Sebastian just enough to want to prove Hunter wrong. So he got up with wobbly knees and swallowed back his terror.

Hunter smiled. "Damn right. Let's go."

The two walked in relative silence to Hunter's office on campus before Sebastian decided the silence was making his anxiety worse. "You knew just what to say to piss me off in the right way."

"What can I say, you're a lot like I used to be. You have my sympathy when it comes to most of this, as I've proven with my patience. But I won't tolerate any of that self-deprecating bullshit. Your phobia is mostly out of your control, but you do control what you tell yourself and you lose my sympathy when you start consciously making it worse for yourself. I'll help you deal with where you are but what we aren't doing is taking steps back. What I said pissed you off because you never truly believed it. When I agreed with your self-deprecating statement it lit a fire under your ass," Hunter said. "That tells me you don't identify with that shit so don't you dare speak it into existence. This. This right here. Even little acts of bravery like this give you reasons to believe in yourself. If you can do this you can go the whole nine yards."

They (or more so Hunter) had been talking for so long that they'd arrived at the office. Hunter unlocked the door and looked at Sebastian expectantly. "I have to ask, how many speeches do you have stored in there buddy?" Sebastian asked sarcastically as he followed him in against his better judgment.

"Many. So many. I've got the 'you deserve better' speech, the 'follow your dreams' speech, the 'meth isn't the answer speech'– you better never need that one. You'd be surprised by the amount of drugs these rich kids can afford. Boarding school, man."

"You'll be pleasantly surprised to hear that I'm fucking up my future with every unhealthy coping mechanism other than substance abuse," Sebastian offered helpfully.

Hunter furrowed his brows. "Well, I can't decide if that's a cry for help or not but this is where we're supposed to start focusing on the experience at hand. Distraction defeats the purpose. We're supposed to discuss what you're feeling and let anxiety take its course."

"Well I'm full of anxiety so demand shouldn't be an issue."

"How anxious are you feeling on a scale of 1 to 10?" Hunter asked.

Sebastian shoved his hands in his pockets as if that would make him feel any safer. "Since we're just in the waiting room about a 4. It's tolerable."

"Unfortunately that's not high enough yet. Let's walk into the back office," Hunter said, opening the door and waiting for Sebastian who expectedly wasn't eager.

"I uh– I'm fine here actually."

"Sebastian I'm not going to ambush you once we get back there. Remember the whole point of this is to get you to a pretty anxious state, and that's not going to happen in the waiting room. I know it's not fun but we've discussed that I'm not doing anything to you. You have to commit to the therapy and trust that this is just going to freak you out but nothing bad will happen," Hunter tried to coax even though he technically wasn't supposed to be. Fairly he wasn't a trained therapist and this was the first time he'd ever tried to do something like this.

"Fuck. Okay. You go and I'll follow behind. I don't know where we're going."

"Fair enough." Hunter walked into the hallway and Sebastian was following behind shockingly. But he stopped once Hunter walked into an exam room.

Hunter looked over Sebastian and he could tell the anxiety was already taking a toll. "What number are you at?"

"About a 5. We're sure getting there." Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose. The color scheme of the room was gray and dark turquoise. Aesthetically you could tell Dalton put money into this office as all of the equipment looked up to date. The scenery sent shivers all over Sebastian's body and he was already starting to get hit with a wave of unease. Just knowing what went on in here on a normal day felt like a damn monstrosity and he knew that was dramatic. Something so normal felt so barbaric in his mind. He knew it wasn't normal.

"Still not enough. You should probably walk in here."

"I figured," Sebastian huffed. He fought more anxiety as he walked in. This was insane. He couldn't believe he was stepping foot into an exam room after all this time. He barely got in the door before he had to stop again. "It's at 5 and a half now by the way. 10 points from Slytherin because this office smells exactly like past trauma."

"I resent that point deduction. So what number do you think you'll be at if I ask you to sit in the chair?" Hunter wondered.

"I don't know but definitely higher."

"How about you sit down and then we'll talk a bit before moving any farther?" he offered.

"Sure. You know just fuck me up fam," Sebastian joked halfheartedly. "I know it's just sitting in a chair and you aren't doing anything but everything in me is telling me to run because something bad is going to happen," he said still standing.

"That's why we're doing this. The only way to get rid of those feelings is to re-train your brain to stop associating these things with panic. You have to teach yourself its safe. You're already doing great by not succumbing to avoidance behavior. But we still have to push it a little more. So come sit down. This is just anxiety, it can't hurt you," Hunter explained.

"That's subjective. It can't physically hurt you but it can sure do some damage," Sebastian muttered. He finally got the guts to sit down and did so reluctantly.

Hunter smiled in satisfaction and sat down on his swivel stool. Sebastian looked worried for a second before sort of relaxing again. "What's your number?"

"6," Sebastian said.

"Okay. What are you feeling?"

"Like this isn't even the worst of it. You aren't actually doing anything today. I trust you aren't going to blitz attack me or anything. But this isn't real and that's still in the back of my mind as a comfort. There's no way to simulate what actually being under your care will feel like until it's happening and there's no way to prepare me for that. There's no way to prepare me for what I'll feel– and the pain. Everyone tells you that shit doesn't hurt but it does and you just have to fucking put up with it and I won't put myself through that again. I'm really tired of this shit fucking me up Hunter and I'd rather experience every negative thing that comes with avoiding this even if it fucks up my life. It won't fuck me up as bad as any of this will." Sebastian was starting to panic a bit more. "It's at a 7 now. I'm working myself up."

Hunter looked really concerned, and he could tell Sebastian was embarrassed by his admissions because the younger wouldn't look at him. "It won't be like that with me Sebastian. I know you can't believe me but I promise I'll take every precaution to make sure that you're okay, and there will be no pain ever."

"Not possible," Sebastian argued. "Why would you lie about it?"

"Because I'm not lying Sebastian. What exactly are you so sure is going to hurt?"

Sebastian just shook his head. "You people just lie. I don't know why I've trusted you at all. None of this means anything. You're putting on a front but it'll just be like every other time. Once you get the chance my well-being doesn't mean shit and it's just about getting the job done, getting your money, and sending me away all fucked up."

"Sebastian if you were just a paycheck to me I promise you would know by now. I would have forced you in here the first day, to hell with your well-being. But I didn't. I've been trying to work on your anxiety specifically for years now, and that's what we're doing right now because I do care about you. I don't want to send you away fucked up. One of the most important things to me has been getting you to a point where you are able to deal with this stuff on your own as an adult. Sending you away traumatized would do the opposite. Think about it. Every one of my actions have proven your worries wrong. If I were like that what I've done so far wouldn't make sense," Hunter tried to reason.

"But what about the things you can't control?" Sebastian asked.

"What do you mean?"

"There's gotta be something wrong with me. The numbing stuff just doesn't work. It hurts. I've told them before and it still hurt so there has to be something wrong with me," Sebastian said blinking back tears.

Hunter's heart broke and all he wanted to do was make sure that never happened to Sebastian again. "But it wasn't your fault. It was their fault. We're trained to know how to deal with situations like that. They didn't do their job. I promise you there's always a way around it if your body reacts differently to the medicine or your nerves are in a slightly different place. You're not some impossible medical mystery Sebastian, they were just neglectful."

"Oh," Sebastian said in a small voice. "Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent sure." Hunter knew reassuring Sebastian was defeating the whole point of exposure therapy but he couldn't just ignore what the younger said and let those worries keep floating around in his mind. "Sebastian are you ready to continue with this? I'm going to lean the chair back and you can tell me about what you're feeling."

Sebastian shrugged. "Fine."

Hunter was silently starting to doubt if this therapy specifically is what Sebastian needed. It certainly wasn't going to hurt him in any way but maybe it just wouldn't be as helpful as he hoped. Debunking his worries seemed to be more helpful than exposing him to specific stimuli but he leaned the chair back nevertheless, not willing to completely abandon this idea yet. The next thing he did without warning. Hunter flipped on the light and that in combination with laying completely vertically gauged a strong reaction out of the younger.

Sebastian knew it was coming but he wasn't expecting the light in his face and it all felt so disorienting. For a second he forgot where he was and that he was safe. He was back in that awful place again and everything was out of his control. Sebastian covered his mouth with his hand and started breathing rapidly and he knew the reaction was ridiculous but this felt so real.

"Hey whoa, Sebastian, it's okay. Sorry for surprising you. What number are you at?"

"Nine," Sebastian said with his mouth still covered. He wanted Hunter to turn it off but he didn't have the guts to ask, and he realized this is exactly what he signed up for. He was frozen and his heart was pounding.

Hunter was quickly starting to realize exposing Sebastian to this and making him feel anxious was going completely against his nature and what he was trained to do in situations like this. But it was necessary so he stuck to it. "I know it doesn't feel like it but this is good. This is an ideal level to be at. Unfortunately for this to be effective you're not allowed to succumb to any escape or safety behavior and covering your mouth right now is a sort of safety blanket. So when you feel ready I want you to move your hand away from your mouth."

"But the light is over my mouth," Sebastian argued.

"Yes. That's the whole point of what we're doing. If that didn't bother you we wouldn't be here," Hunter said unhelpfully.

Sebastian huffed and slowly moved his hand away from his mouth.

"Good. So is your anxiety rising or falling?" Hunter asked.

At first, Sebastian didn't even want to talk with this damn light over his mouth but to be fair Hunter wasn't sitting over him. He was sitting off to the side a bit so that made Sebastian feel a little better. "It spiked when you initially leaned me back but once I realized I was safe it went back down again. I don't like this but I'm at about a 7 now. It's falling because I know none of this is real and you won't do anything unless I give you permission to."

"Not to pressure you into anything, but what you said earlier about none of this being real made me rethink the whole point of this therapy. The stimuli aren't the cause of your phobia, its what you're afraid will happen. This- it won't help that Sebastian. It will help to an extent yes but not as much as I'd hoped. The only thing that will help you is good experiences. Real experiences. I know you don't want to hear that but its the truth."

Sebastian sighed. "I knew you were gonna say that. I mean I brought it on myself because I kept saying this isn't real. I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do."

"Trust me?" Hunter offered, again unhelpfully. He turned off the light and sat Sebastian's chair up. "This isn't working. So let's start out small. We can take some quick X-rays and then go from there. You can deal with that, I know you can."

Panic crossed Sebastian's face at the suggestion. "No. Not happening."

Hunter looked at him skeptically. "What are you afraid will happen?"

"I don't know."

Hunter knew that meant Sebastian didn't want to tell him. Slowly he started to make sense of it all. If whatever Sebastian didn't want to tell him were a legitimate worry he would have voiced it by now, he proved that with his other admissions from earlier. There was also his treatment related worries earlier about getting numb. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on here. "Sebastian, you're a smart kid so I know you can't think this little of me. You know that I know. So let's skip over the part where you try to hide whatever issue you have from me. It's a thing, that's fine, shit happens. Let's move forward. So like I said, X-ray?"

Sebastian's face hardened. "I don't know what you think you know, but I think I've had enough of your face for today. So I'm gonna leave and we're just gonna pretend all of this never happened. Have a nice life."

Hunter groaned in a loud, dramatic fashion. "Seeeeebbbbbbastain, you're really gonna make me do this song and dance with you? After all the progress we made today? I'm personally not into the whole denial thing so don't think I'm going to make this easy for you. If you walk out of here right now I'm going to take it as a challenge."

Sebastian's back was already to Hunter at this point and the only response he received from the younger was a middle finger.

"Classy Sebastian! That's real ballsy coming from the guy who probably can't even chew chocolate right now. You're depriving yourself of the greatest gift of human existence!" Hunter realized he wasn't getting a response after he heard the door to the office open and shut. However, he smirked to himself once he got an idea.

* * *

 **A/N: Yep. A cliffy. What can I say, Seb's assholeary has rubbed off on me. That means you gotta review to get more because I need validation dammit. Suffer, suffer! Anyway so if you're not familiar with this universe from the role-plays this is the oh so adored Dalton Medical Center universe. Basically, the plot is from the spin-off role-play I wrote (RP 65) I think going on 3 years ago now, but rereading it I was so disappointed in my half of the performance and I needed a better version to exist, so here it is coming from me 3 years later, now an adult and significantly more traumatized.**

 **Alright so this story is so long its gonna have to be split up. Editing the first 12k alone was exhausting and I still have more written, more to write, and much more drama.  
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 **I'm going to start putting updates on the progress of my stories in my profile on here so you guys will know where I'm at with a story. Right after I post this I'll write an update on the progress of my other stories. So check that if you're getting impatient. That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this. There is more to come.**


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